Powys residents Terry Jones - of Monty Python - and acclaimed travel writer Jan Morris, are among the names added to a record of notable people in British history.

Python star Jones and Jan Morris - who broke the news of the first successful ascent of Everest - both lived in Powys during their lives and passed away in 2020.

Today it has been revealed that they have both been added to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which covers notable figures from British history and was first published in 1885.

Though neither were born in Powys, both would come to call the area of Mid Wales home later in life.

Born in Colwyn, north Wales, Terry Jones had a home in the Staylittle area and would frequently visit the local town of Llanidloes while also being a regular at Y Star Inn, in Dylife.

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At the start of his career in comedy, Jones wrote and performed high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, alongside his writing partner Michael Palin.

It was with Palin that that he became involved with his best known project, creating Monty Python’s Flying Circus along with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

County Times:

Jones helmed some of the comedy troupe’s best known creations, such as co-directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail alongside Gilliam and directing the two other Python films, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards, however in the same year he also revealed that he had been diagnosed with degenerative aphasia and passed away a few years later.

The other name added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is Wales’ most celebrated travel writer, Jan Morris, who resided in Machynlleth.

County Times:

As a journalist, she covered 1953 expedition to Mount Everest, breaking the news of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s successful ascent to the summit, played a key role in the 1956 Suez Crisis by uncovering lies told by the British and French governments regarding their invasion of Egypt and reported on the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

In the 1960s she began writing travel journals while she also began transitioning to live life as a woman, having been assigned male at birth, eventually undergoing sex reassignment surgery in 1972.

As same sex marriage was not legal at the time, Jan and her wife Elizabeth, first married in 1949, were required to divorce. They remained together after the surgery and entered a civil partnership in 2008.

Other famous Welsh figures added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

  • John James (J.J.) Williams (1948–2020), born in Maesteg, Glamorgan, was a talented athlete who represented Wales in the 100m and 200m at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, but it was as a rugby player for Bridgend, Llanelli, Wales, and the British and Irish Lions that he will be forever remembered.
  • Born in Prestatyn, Flintshire, the novelist, dramatist, and writer Emyr Humphreys (1919–2020) was a lifelong Welsh nationalist whose writings, in both English and Welsh, explored Welsh history and the modern Welsh predicament.
  • Born in Swansea, the guitarist and musician Spencer Davis (1939–2020) read German at the University of Birmingham (leading colleagues to call him ‘the professor’) before forming the Spencer Davis Group, who had hits with ‘Keep on Running’, ’Gimme Some Lovin’, and ‘I’m a Man’.
  • Born in Ponthenri, the son of a coalminer, Sir John Meurig Thomas (1932–2020) was a world-renowned scientist for his work in catalytic chemistry, solid state chemistry, and ‘crystal engineering’.
  • Born in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, Sir John Cadogan (1930–2020) was another renowned Welsh chemist and educationist, whose career spanned academia and industry, including as chief scientist at BP.
  • Born in Llansadwrn, into a Welsh-speaking family, John (Shôn) Ffowcs Williams (1935–2020) was an engineer, an expert on aeroacoustics, hydrodynamics, and noise reduction (noted for his work on Concorde), and later master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
  • Martin Williams (1947–2020), from Mountain Ash, was a chemist and environmental scientist who worked on air pollution and specifically vehicle pollution.
  • The atmospheric physicist and climate scientist Sir John Houghton (1931–2020), born in Dyserth, Flintshire, was a professor at Oxford then director of the Meteorological Office from 1983 to 1991.
  • The civil engineer Gwilym Roberts (1925–2020), from Llanfair, Merionethshire, achieved a worldwide reputation for his work on large-scale water engineering projects, including many in the Middle East, and most notably the Greater Cairo Wastewater Project.
  • Born in Barry, Sir David Prosser (1944–2020) studied pure mathematics at Aberystwyth and worked for the pensions arm of the National Coal Board before joining the insurance group Legal & General.
  • Born in Gorseinon, Tristan Garel-Jones, Baron Garel-Jones (1941–2020), Conservative MP for Watford from 1979 to 1997, served in the whips’ office under Thatcher for seven years, where he gained a reputation for Machiavellianism.
  • From an earlier generation, Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont (1919–2020), born in Llantarnam, Monmouthshire, was a former army officer and a respected defence journalist when in 1964 Harold Wilson elevated him to the House of Lords, where he served for six years as a minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
  • Born in Neath and educated at the grammar school (where he only chose Spanish to avoid physics) the Hispanic scholar Ian Michael (1934–2020) was best known (and lauded in Spain) for his work on medieval Spanish texts including the Poema de mio Cid.
  • Terry Hands (1941–2020) was one of the most celebrated theatre directors of his generation. He was a founder of the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in 1964, spent twenty-five years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
  • Joe Brown (1930–2020), from Manchester, began climbing on Kinder Scout using gym shoes and his mother’s clothesline as a rope. He became a celebrated climber and mountaineer, making the first ascent of Kangchenjunga and the Muztagh Tower in the Himalayas. From 1966 he lived in Llanberis, where he ran a shop selling climbing gear.
  • Born in Cardiff, but brought up near Chepstow, Liz Edgar (1943–2020) was a champion showjumper who won the Queen Elizabeth Cup a record five times, was the first woman to win the Aachen Grand Prix, and was in three winning Nations Cup teams.