Early Life and Career
The daughter of Reginald and Bertha Watts, she was born in Cromer, Norfolk, and educated at North Walsham Girls' High School and St Hilda's College, Oxford, gaining an MA in Modern Languages, after which she became a school teacher and a worked as an Education Inspector for Norfolk County Council from 1963 to 1975. From 1975 to 1977, she worked for Anglia Television. She was elected to Parliament in 1987, and became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Peter Lilley in 1988. She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Social Security in 1989, and then in 1990, Minister of State at HM Treasury. In 1990, she was given the additional role of Deputy Chairman of the Party. She married Thomas Shephard on 27 December 1975 and has two stepsons.
Read more about this topic: Gillian Shephard
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