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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ

The life that I have is all that I have and the life that I have is yours

The love that I have of the life that I have shall be yours and yours and yours

A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have, death will be but a pause

For the peace of my years in the long green grass shall be yours and yours and yours

written by Leo Marks, codemaster at the SOE who wrote it to be used by

Violette Szabo on her missions to France ( see below)

HER NAME IS V.........

* V Eames - Miss

..... winner of the FIRST women's event in the FIRST open table-tennis tournament on 14th December 1901. This was the Championship of London event held at the Royal Aquarium. The FIRST Table-Tennis club was formed in the City of London in 1901 and met in Moorgate Street

* Vaira Vike-Freiberga

..... FIRST woman head of state in Latvia

* Val Mainwaring

..... in 1998 she was the FIRST woman member of the Penlee Lifeboat in Cornwall

* Val Watson

..... FIRST dedicated sponsorship officer with Greater Manchester Police in 1999 when she was appointed to find new cash to run non-essential crime prevention programmes and buy extra equipment

* Val Williamson

..... FIRST North West Woman of Achievement in 1993 when the award was given to her for her care of her handicapped son as well as forging ahead in her career at Norweb. She had a daughter and two sons, one of whom suffered mental and physical disabilities. She was told that he would never walk but with her devotion and care he did and after he started school she took a part-time job with Norweb, worked her way up and took courses which enabled her to become supervisor of a personnel section

* Valda James

.....  the FIRST black woman mayor when appointed in Islington in 1988

* Valentina  Vladimirovna Tereshkova

born 1937

...... Russian cosmonaut who was the FIRST ever woman to go into space when on the 16th June 1963 she was launched in Vostok 6 and completed 48 orbits in 71 hours.  It was 20 years before another woman went into space and she was one of the first to congratulate the American Sally Ride . Valentina worked at the Gagarin Centre where she trained other cosmonauts and worked on her doctorate in space technology. She was once described as one of the most powerful women in Moscow and in 1983 her portrait was put on the one rouble coin. She was made head of the Soviet Women's Committee  but two years later was removed from office and made president of the Union of Soviet Friendship Societies

* Valerie André

 born 1922

..... FIRST French woman General. She studied in Paris and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 1948. She was Chief of medicine of a women's infirmary in Vietnam and then a neurosurgery assistant at a military hospital. In 1950 she became a helicopter pilot and flew 150 medical missions notably during the siege of the fortress of Dienbienphu. Valerie received nine decorations including the Legion d'Honneur, the Croix de Guerre and the U.S Legion of Merit. As medical chief of a helicopter squadron she participated in the Algiers campaign and in 1970 reached the rank of colonel before eventually becoming a General she was Medical Technical Adviser to the Commander of aerial transports and then Chief of Medical Service

* Valerie Ivison

..... FIRST female head teacher to be appointed to a mixed school in Salford, England when she took charge at Hope High School in 1975 and was also a pioneer in promoting links with industry and commerce and non-examination courses for children at school. Through her efforts the school was given various awards over the years

* Valerie Karn

..... FIRST professor of Housing Studies at Manchester University in 1993. For almost ten years she was Professor of Environmental Health and Housing at Salford University and also chaired the Hulme Study. She became an expert on race and housing matters and dealing with nuisance neighbours and landlord-tenant relations

* Valerie McIntyre

..... FIRST woman to serve on the Leckwith and Michaelstone-le-Pit Community Council in 1979

* Valerie Rogers

..... one of the FIRST British women to undergo a bodylift, a new radical operation to get rid of body fat (2002). The operation was carried out in America and her story was recently shown on British television

* Valerie Sancroft-Baker

 neé Worke

 born 29th November 1914 died 1991

..... farmer in Kenya who abandoned agriculture and founded a safari company and became the FIRST woman to be registered as a safari guide in what had been an entirely male preserve. When she married her husband John Kent in 1940 they were among the FIRST white settlers in the South Kinangop area of Kenya. In the 1950s and early 60s she was an important figure on the nursing side of the Order of St John and in recognition of her services as Nursing Superintendent in East Africa she became a Companion of the Order. During the Mau Mau troubles from 1952 to 1956 she patrolled her territory.  During WW2 she served in the East African branch of the FANYs. Her husband died in 1980 and three years later she married again and returned to England

* Valerie Strachan

..... nicknamed "Vatwoman", in 1992 she became FIRST woman chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise after 30 years working for Customs apart from brief spells at the Home Office and Whitehall's department of economic affairs

* Valerie Vaz

..... FIRST Asian woman counsellor for the London Borough of Ealing in 1986

* Vanessa Feltz

..... known as the 'Queen of Daytime TV' and Britain's answer to Oprah Winfrey she was the FIRST woman columnist for the Jewish Chronicle and was also the youngest

* Vanessa Lawrence

….. FIRST woman director-general and chief executive at Ordnance Survey, the mapping agency, in its 209 year history in June 2000. Aged 37, she was also its youngest leader

* Vanessa Lloyd-Davies

..... FIRST female regimental medical officer with the Household Cavalry in its 300-year history and FIRST female Master of the Oxford Draghounds

* Vanessa Spiller

..... FIRST woman Principal Warfare Officer in the British Royal Navy in 1997 where she will assist in directing fighting operations and authorising defensive manoeuvres on HMS Sheffield, based in Plymouth, Devon

* Vanessa Williams

..... FIRST black Miss America when she made history in the 63-year-old contest at Atlantic City

* Vastiana Belfon

 born 1954

..... FIRST black television chat- show presenter in Britain. Her show was called Ebony People and was shown on BBC2

* Vee Grainger

 born 1943

..... a former trainee journalist with the Salford City Reporter she was appointed the FIRST woman assistant editor of the official report of Parliament - Hansard - in its 100-years in 1988. A relay team of speedy shorthand writers take a verbatim account of everything MPs say in the House of Commons and when this is collated it becomes Hansard, named after a printer. It went bankrupt at least once when it was a private concern and in 1909 it became the 'authorised edition' under government control

* Vee Nield

..... in 1988 she became the FIRST woman general secretary of the Police Federation in its 70-year existence. At the time she was an Inspector with the West Midlands force and had been the federation's deputy secretary for two years. She led the campaign to stop victims of child abuse having to give direct evidence in court, which resulted in legislation allowing videotape recordings to be used as evidence

* Venus and Serena Williams

..... American sisters who were the FIRST sisters in 116 years that met in a semi-final tennis match at Wimbledon in 2000. In 2002 Venus became the FIRST African-American to reach the number 1 ranking on the WTA tour

..... in August 1900 she was the FIRST Englishwoman to take a driving test in Paris

* Vera Caslavska

..... FIRST President of Czechoslovakia's newly-liberated team (athletics)- April 1990. In 1964 she became a heroine of her country when she won three gold and two silver medals in gymnastics in Tokyo. Altogether she has won more gold medals than any other woman in individual events in the Olympics

* Vera Chirwa

..... Africa's longest-held and best-known female political prisoner she was the FIRST female Malawian lawyer and FIRST female public prosecutor in Africa, a distinction she gained while in exile in Tanzania. Her husband Orton, was the FIRST black Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Malawi but within two months Hastings Banda had turned on his Cabinet and the Chirwas went into exile. In 1983 they were tried and condemned to death but were saved from the gallows by international pressure and imprisoned where they were held in solitary confinement. After 11 years of a punishing prison regime Orton died and there were calls for Vera to be released

* Vera Chytilova

born 1929

..... FIRST feminist film-maker in Czechoslovakia. Some of the films she made caused her problems with the authorities and between 1969 and 1975 she was unable to work and despite being invited to numerous Women's Film Festivals she was not allowed to attend. In 1975 she wrote to President Husák refuting the allegations against her and attributing her problems to male chauvinism within the industry. She was allowed to resume work and from 1976 made ten short and feature-length films. In 1989 her film Kopytem sem, kopytem tam,( A Tainted Horseplay)  was the FIRST film in Eastern Europe about Aids

* Vera Hayes, Betty Day and Mary Williams

 ..... FIRST women admitted into the lounge bar of Whitchurch's British Legion Club in Cardiff in 1989 

* Vera Hunt

..... FIRST profoundly deaf woman to be ordained as a deacon by the Church of England in 1991. She worked ( unpaid) as Honorary Chaplain for deaf people at St Saviour's Deaf Church in Acton. At this time however, she was barred from becoming a priest, not because she was deaf but because she was a woman

* Vera Lynn

neé Welch

born 20th March 1917

..... British singer who became the ' Forces Sweetheart' during the Second World War with songs such as The White Cliffs of Dover , We'll Meet Again and Auf Wiedersehn which sold over 12 million copies and made her the FIRST British artist (male or female) to reach the top of the American hit parade. In the 1980s she was the FIRST woman President of the Printers' Charitable Corporation n its 153-years and in 1990 became the  FIRST woman member of a new tie club when she joined four other celebrities to receive a "Great Britons Tie".  She was also the  FIRST woman President of the Printers Charitable Corporation

* Vera di Palma

..... FIRST woman President of an accountancy body when appointed by the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants in 1980 and FIRST woman member of the Council of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants

* Vera Robinson and others

..... FIRST British women to go into active combat during WW2 as ack-ack girls. Vera joined the ATS in 1941 when, with utmost secrecy, girls were recruited and under fire at night, they manned anti-aircraft guns. Her book Sisters In Arms tells the story of the girls wartime activities and was initially published by Vera herself and there is an annual reunion

* Vera Selby

 ..... 1976 winner of the FIRST women's World Professional Snooker Championship

* Verena Von Weymarn

..... on 26th March 1994 she became the FIRST woman General in the German armed forces

* Veronica Bland

..... on 27th January 1993 she became the FIRST passive worker in the UK to win compensation for damage to her health at work when she agreed to a settlement of £15,000 from Stockport Council in a personal injury claim. Through her colleagues at work smoking she developed chronic bronchitis and it was believed that the payout would force tens of thousands of firms to change their smoking policy

* Veronica Lucille Crichton

 born March 2nd 1949 died 2002

 ..... media adviser to the Labour Party during the 1970s and 1980s and was one of the FIRST women to edit Varsity, the university newspaper at Newnham, Cambridge where she was an under-graduate

* Veronica Wedgewood - Dame

 neé Cicely Veronica

 born July 20th 1910 died 1997

..... historian of the 17th century who was the FIRST woman to give the Leslie Stephen Lecture at Cambridge in 1957. She was a member of the Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts and for two terms was the FIRST woman trustee of the National Gallery.  In 1969 she became the third woman to be appointed a member of the Order of Merit since it's foundation by King Edward V11 in 1902. The first being Florence Nightingale and the second was Professor Dame Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Dame Veronica published a score of books which brought her both high academic honours and a popular following. The King's Peace in 1955 was the first volume of her three-volume history of the English Civil War. In 1956 she was appointed CBE, made DBE in 1968 and held many honorary degrees. In America she was a member of the Academy of Arts and letters and of the Academy of Arts and Science

* Veronica Volkersz

..... FIRST British woman to fly a jet plane when she flew a Meteor 111 EE386 from the Gloster Meteor plant at Morton-Vallence to RAF 124 Squadron at Molesworth in 1945. During the war she had been a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary under Pauline Gower

* Vesta Tilley

 neé Matilda Powles

 born 1864 died 1952

..... she took to the stage at the age of three and by the time she was nine was doing three halls a night in London. At the age of 13 she became a principal boy at Drury Lane and later became the FIRST male impersonator in the theatre, dressed in Savile Row suits. She was a hit in Chicago and New York and was idolised in Britain where she sang patriotic songs and helped the drive for volunteers during the First World War. In 1920 she retired and received 17 curtain calls at her farewell concert. She also received a set of books which contained two million signatures of admirers

* Vestris -Madame

..... FIRST to bring realism into the theatre with a box set, a ceiling which would hold a chandelier and doors and windows which function

* Vicki Coulthard

..... in August 1993 she became the FIRST woman partner at Ridgway Greenall , leading solicitors in Warrington, England, in its 200 years 

* Vicki Lane

..... FIRST woman to be admitted to the ranks of the Freeman Burgers of the Ancient Borough of Altrincham, Manchester

* Vickie Keith

..... FIRST woman and only person to swim across all the 5 Great Lakes of North America

* Vicky Haigh

..... FIRST woman to win the Barclays Bank Hurdle Meeting in 1994 when, at 50-1, she stormed home on her gelding Shamshom Al Arab

* Vicky Laloe-Holmes

..... FIRST female commercial diver in Britain working alongside men on a North Sea oil rig 

* Vicky Seager

..... FIRST woman custodian of Hilbre Island an island which rises from the south of the Dee estuary about a mile from the Cheshire mainland and some nine miles south of Liverpool. There are three tidal islands in the group - Hilbre, Middle Eye and Little Eye - and at low tide it is possible to walk from West Kirby straight onto Hilbre. To visit Hilbre you need a special permit and the eleven acres are full of beautiful wild flowers, rare birds, crabs and seals. Vicky's job is to take care of the island and its wildlife inhabitants. She takes parties on guided tours and even takes some visitors out in canoes to show them around the island and to catch a glimpse of the seals

* Victoria Downes

..... FIRST girl to play in the adult Cheshire Cricket League in May 1999 when she was drafted in at the last minute to replace a Bredbury 2nd X1 player and she was the only player to leave the field undefeated, with a score of two not out

* Victoria Draves

..... American who was the FIRST woman to win both the highboard and springboard diving titles in the same Olympic Games in London in 1948

* Victoria Drummond

..... the first woman member of the Institute of Marine Engineers - 1921

* Victoria John

..... FIRST woman director at a British enterprise agency. - Hastings Business Ventures - the country's latest enterprise agency which was backed by nearly 30 companies including Shell

* Victoria - Princess

..... eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, with her husband Frederick, the Crown Prince of Russia, they were the FIRST newly wedded couple to appear to the crowds on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and Mendelssohns    ' Wedding March' was FIRST played at their wedding

* Victoria - Queen

 born 1819 died January 22nd 1901

Alexandrina Victoria

..... English Queen who reigned for 63 years, the longest reign of a British monarch, her name symbolised an age and during her reign the British Empire doubled in size. She came to the throne in 1837 and in 1840 married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha and they had nine children. On 7th April 1853,  became the FIRST Royal to use chloroform to ease the pain of childbirth . She was also the FIRST reigning British monarch to travel by train when on 13th June 1842 she made the twenty-five minute journey from Windsor to Paddington accompanied by her husband, she was the FIRST British monarch to have her photo taken when she was filmed at Balmoral in 1896 and the FIRST to use a lift and a telephone. It is said that she owned the FIRST Pekingese dog in Britain when it was presented to her by an ambitious British officer, John Hart Dunne, in 1861. Apparently she was not amused. When she died she left behind six children, 40 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. In 1991 a recording was unearthed at the Science Museum in London and it was thought to be her voice which experts believe were spoken by her at Balmoral Castle in 1888. Apparently the Queen asked for it to be destroyed but the gramophone cylinder was kept secretly and donated to the museum in 1929.  Only a few words could be made out

* Victoria of Spain -  Queen

 born October 24th 1887

..... FIRST Royal baby to be born North of the Tweed for 300 years when she was born in the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria. She was the second child of Prince Henry of Battenburg and Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria, and was christened Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena. Known as Princess Ena of Battenburg she married King Alfonso of Spain in 1906. It was hailed by many as an excellent alliance between Spain and England but others opposed the marriage and as the Royal couple returned from the church a bomb was thrown at their carriage. Several soldiers and spectators were killed

* Victoria and Sue Riches

..... mother and daughter who were two of the team of the FIRST ever all-female team to attempt to reach the North Pole in 1997 ( see Caroline Hamilton)

* Victoria Wood

 born 1953

..... FIRST woman to he nominated for the title Tie Man of the Year. (1982). She was one of 13 nominees and the title was won by the ITN newsreader and reporter Trevor Macdonald

* Victoria Claflin Woodhull

 born 1838 died 1927

..... in 1872 she was nominated for President of the USA by the Equal Rights Party making her the FIRST woman to be nominated for this post and with her sister Tennessee became the FIRST women stockbrokers in America - January 19th 1870. They inaugurated 'Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly' a journal which advocated socialism, woman suffrage, free love, birth control and vegetarianism. It also published the scandalous Beecher-Tilton story that occasioned the trial of Henry Ward Beecher in 1872 for adultery and was also the journal in which the Communist Manifesto was FIRST made available in English to American readers

* Victoria Younghusband

..... FIRST woman member of the City University Club in 1996 after 101 years, although ladies were allowed in as guests in 1993

* Vida Goldstein

 born 1869 died 1949

..... FIRST woman in the British Empire to be nominated for Parliament. She was the major leader of the Australian women suffrage movement and devoted herself full-time to the cause and published the Australian Women s Sphere, a feminist journal. In 1902 women received the right to vote and the following year she received her nomination to Parliament. Although she ran for office five times she was never elected but she used her campaigns to educate the public on women s issues. In 1911 she went to England and remained in Europe working for the peace campaign. On her return to Australia she gradually withdrew from politics and devoted the last 20 years of her life to Christian Science

* Vigdis Finnbogadottir

 born 1930

..... FIRST democratically elected woman Head of State in the world when made President of Iceland on June 29th 1980 after she had been persuaded to run for President and obtained just over a third of the total vote. She took office on August 1st. She also taught Icelandic drama at the University of Iceland and worked for State television. Her party is the Kvenna Listinn (Women's Party) which has only women members and is the FIRST all-women's party to be represented in a national parliament. They have a system of rotation for their spokeswoman

* Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

 born 1900 died 1990

neé Swarup Kumari Nehru

..... daughter of Motilal Nehru, her brother became Prime Minister of India. She was the FIRST woman elected to the Legislature of the Union Provinces in India and from 1947-49 was India's FIRST Ambassador to the Soviet Union. She was also Ambassador to the U.S.A and Mexico (1949-51), from 1953/54 she was the FIRST woman President of the United Nations and from 1954 to 1961 was Indian High Commissioner in London and Ambassador to Ireland and to Spain (1958-61). She was also Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964

* Viola Lawrence

..... FIRST woman editor of a film - 1915- Vitagraph Studios

* Violet Bonham Carter

born 1887 died 1969

..... FIRST woman President of the Liberal Party Organisation. From 1923-25 she was President of the Women's Liberal Foundation and also from 1939-45 when in the latter year she became President of the LPO. She was an ardent advocate of the League of Nations and in 1953 was appointed DBE. Her fight for the cause of liberalism never ceased and although she was not successful in becoming an MP she entered Parliament in 1964 as a life peeress. In 1963 she was the FIRST woman to give the Romanes Lecture at Oxford when she spoke of the "Impact of Personality on Politics"

* Violet Cholmondley

 neé Parker

..... she was the daughter of Preb Archibald Parker and in 1911 set up the VAD at Wem, Shropshire. During the First World War she nursed in a Shropshire military hospital and in the casualty department of the War Office. While at the War Office she captained a ladies’ cricket Xl and played violin in a London orchestra. She raised Wem’s FIRST companies of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and was chairman of Shropshire Nursing Federation. During the Second World War she was Commandant of the military hospital at Leaton Knolls and subsequently chairman of the women’s section of the British Legion

* Violet Hedger

 born January 5th 1900 died 1992

..... FIRST woman Minister of the Baptist Union who was ordained in Derby in 1926 and was also one of the FIRST Western Christians to visit China when the Cultural Revolution was superseded. Although two other women, widows of Baptist ministers killed in WW1, had taken charge of their husband's churches and been recognised as pastors, Rev Hedger was the first to be trained and accredited to the Baptist Union

* Violet Winifred Johns

 neé Hurn

 born 1913 died 1997

..... writer of more than 100 books on gardening, flowers and cookery she wrote the FIRST book in England on the subject of dried flowers - Dried Flowers for Decoration (1955) . For many years she was also gardening editor of Woman's Realm and in the late 1940s and 50s travelled around Britain lecturing on flower arranging and judging flower shows

* Violet Piercy

 ..... the FIRST woman to be officially timed in a marathon race - 1926

* Violet Webb

 born 1915 died 1999

..... in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles she became the FIRST woman to win an Olympic medal for Britain in athletics as part of the 4 x 100 metres relay team which took bronze.  Athletics for women had entered the Olympic programme in 1928 amid some controversy as the founder Baron Coubertin was strongly against women taking part. As a result of the limits imposed the British female athletes boycotted the Amsterdam Games in 1928 , the FIRST year they were eligible to enter. They did however join the games four years later and Violet and her team mates constituted the FIRST British Olympic women's athletics  team

* Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

born c1941

..... FIRST woman President of Nicaragua when she won a surprise victory as leader of an opposition movement in 1990 in one of the FIRST legitimately democratic elections in Nicaraguan history

* Violette Szabo

 neé Bushell

 born 26th June 1921 died 1945

..... war heroine of the Second World War who was the FIRST woman to be awarded the George Cross posthumously after she was executed as a spy by the Germans. She was one of the bravest couriers of the Special Operations Executive, a member of the FANYs and made two trips to occupied France where she helped to co-ordinate  French resistance. On her second journey just before D-Day she was sprained her ankle and was wounded by Germans chasing her and one of the leaders of the Maquis but she held off 400 troops until her ammunition ran out in order to let her companion escape. She was captured, interrogated and brutally tortured at Avenue Foch but gave away no information. Eventually she was sent to Ravensbruck and then Konigsberg and then back to Ravensbruck where she was finally executed. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government and a film was made of her story - Carve Her Name With Pride. Her daughter Tanya received the George Cross on her behalf from King George. Odette Hallowes (Sansom) said of her " She was the bravest of them all".  In Wormelow, Herefordshire there is a museum commemorating her life, which was set up by Rosemary Rigby ( her poem is at the top of this page)

* Virginia Apgar

born 1909

..... one of the FIRST women graduates at the Medical School at Columbia University in 1933 and one of the FIRST to specialise in surgery and the FIRST full Professor of Anaesthesiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre in 1949 after she had established anaesthesiology as a separate field of its own in medicine. Because of her work the lives of countless newborn babies have been save and the Apgar score is still in use today

* Virginia Dare

..... on 18th August 1587 she was the FIRST English child to be born in the present U.S.A in Virginia, named so by Sir Walter Raleigh.  Her grand-father, John White, had arrived at Roanoke Island to search for survivors of the Grenville expedition, found none, but left a group of colonist there. He sailed back to England for supplies but his return was delayed until 1590 due to the Spanish Armada. When he arrived back in America there was no trace of the colonists. In 1937 a quartz stone was discovered in Chowan County, North Carolina, carved with what purported to be a message from Eleanore White Dare, Virginia's mother, describing the slaughter of the entire colony except seven who were presumably saved by friendly natives. This find was followed by 48 others, all seeming to corroborate the first but they were exposed as forgeries in 1941. In 1602 Raleigh had dispatched a final expedition in a futile search for survivors

* Virginia Holgate

..... FIRST British woman to win an individual medal in the horse trials in the Olympics in 1984

* Virginia Moura

 died 1998

..... FIRST woman civil engineer in Portugal in 1938. She was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and was frequently arrested for protesting against Antonio Salazar's dictatorship. In 1985 she was awarded the Order of Liberty (Portugal) in recognition of her opposition to Dr. Salazur's rule

* Virginia Tandy

..... FIRST female director at Manchester Art Gallery

* Virginia Sarah Wade

born 1945

..... FIRST woman committee member of the All-England Tennis Club

* Vivian Derryck

..... FIRST African-American and FIRST woman President of the African-American Institute

* Vivien Leigh

 neé Vivien Mary Hartley

 born November 5th 1913 died 1967

..... FIRST film star to be honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque which was unveiled outside her London flat in Eaton Square in 1996 and FIRST British actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress when she received it for Gone With The Wind in 1939. She was born in India and brought up convents in Europe and was presented at court as a debutante.  After Gone With The Wind she made only nine more films, one of which was Streetcar Named Desire for which she won another Oscar but felt that the role was in part responsible for her suffering from manic depression in her later years. Her marriage to Laurence Olivier ended in 1960

* Vivien Elizabeth Neves

 born 1948 died 2002

..... FIRST lady to appear fully nude in the newspapers - The Times - 1971

(from Ben Rolfe on behalf of Amanda Neves)

* Vivien Saunders

..... FIRST woman to qualify through the Professional Golfer's Association Training School at Lilleshall and the FIRST European to qualify for the women's professional golfer tour in America (1969). She published two golfing manuals, The Complete Woman Golfer and Golf Practice and in 1986 bought her own golf course at Abbotsley. In 1988 she applied for the professional's job at the 101-year-old all-male Royal St George's club at Sandwich and if appointed would be the FIRST woman professional   ( did she get it???)

* Vivien Sirotkin

..... FIRST woman in Europe to run a 5-star hotel when she became general manager of Gleneagles in Perthshire with a staff of 500 and an annual turnover of £18 million

* Vivienne FauII

..... in 1985 she became the FIRST woman college chaplain at Cambridge University when she took up her duties at Clare, her old college. Clare College was founded in 1388 and was one of the FIRST to admit women undergraduates. In February 2000 when appointed the FIRST woman provost of Leicester Cathedral it made her the most senior woman priest in the Church of England. In 2001 she was tipped to become Britain's FIRST woman bishop ( did she do it ??? )

* Vivienne Westwood

born 1941-

.....  the FIRST British fashion designer to have a retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London - April 1st to July 11th 2004

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