Shropshire figures make Who's Who list for influential people

The Archdeacon of Salop and a Shropshire college principal have joined Fabio Capello and Jensen Button in the latest edition of Who's Who.

Entry into the top people's bible is by invitation only, and it features potted biographies of 33,000 of the most celebrated, talented and influential people in Britain and elsewhere. There are 1,000 new entries this year.

Four of the new entries have Shropshire connections.

Neil Hawkins, 46, the principal of Concord College at Acton Burnell, is joined by the Archdeacon of Salop, the Venerable Paul Thomas, 56, who lives at The Vicarage at Tong.

Also included are Oswestry-born Andrew Carter, 62, the headteacher of South Farnham School in Surrey, and Luton-based district judge Carolyn Mellanby, 59, who was born in Shrewsbury.

Mr Hawkins has guided Concord College to become the top performing private school in Shropshire for GCSE results, with 80.35 per cent of exam entries awarded grades A or A* in 2011.

The Archdeacon of Salop, who was installed into the post in May this year, was previously vicar of Doxey in Stafford. He has responsibility for nearly 200 clergy and lay ministers serving 150 churches across the northern half of Shropshire.

Mr Carter, who has also been awarded an OBE, is head of a Surrey primary school which regularly features at the top of league tables, with 100 per cent of its pupils achieving the level expected of them at the end of year six.

Judge Mellanby has been involved in a number of high profile cases including that of seven Muslim extremists on public order offences during the return soldiers from Iraq and the leader of the English Defence League convicted of football-related violence.

Also included in Who's Who for the first time this year are chef Michel Roux and comedian Hugh Dennis.

Everyone in Who's Who – with the possible exception of the fugitive peer Lord Lucan, who vanished in November 1974 – is invited to compile his or her own entry, so entries can be as long or as short as required.

Dame Barbara Cartland needed 143 lines to list her achievements. The Archdeacon of Salop explains his life story in just 11 lines – it would have been 10 if he hadn't included his email address – the same number as Prime Minister David Cameron and just three fewer than US President Barack Obama.