Nancy Wilkinson
Nancy Wilkinson (29 September 1919 – 21 November 1999) was the winner of the first BBC TV Mastermind quiz series in 1972.
Nancy Wilkinson was born Nancy Barbara Constance Bird[1] in London in 1919. She studied modern languages and music at Cambridge from 1937 to 1941, and during World War II worked for the intelligence service at Bletchley Park.[2] On 13 July 1945 she married John Wilkinson,[1] and after some years in Cornwall they lived in Kingston, Cambridgeshire, for the rest of her life.[3] She taught at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now the Anglia Ruskin University).[3]
She was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from its inception in 1970 until 1989.[3]
In the 1972 Mastermind series her specialised subjects were French literature, European antiques, and the history of music 1550–1900. In 1975 she went on to win a Supermind contest between the first four Mastermind Champions.
Wilkinson died in 1999 at the age of 80.