William Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw

Who is William Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw?

William Peter Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw, commonly known as Bill Bradshaw, is a British academic and politician. A Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, where he is currently his party's spokesperson on transport, he was formerly also a County Councillor in Oxfordshire from 1993 until his resignation in January 2008.

The son of Leonard and Ivy Bradshaw, he was educated at Slough Grammar School and the University of Reading. He married Jill Hayward in 1957, by whom he has two children; after Jill's death in 2002, he married Diana Ayris in 2003.

After National Service from 1957 to 1959, he worked for British Rail from 1959 to 1985, starting as a management trainee in the Western Region and rising to the post of Director Policy Unit in 1980, and General manager of British Rail's Western Region 1983.

After leaving British Rail, Bradshaw was Professor of Transport Management at the University of Salford from 1986–92, a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and then Chair of Ulsterbus and Citybus Ltd in Belfast from 1987-93. He was a special adviser to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee from 1992-97.

He was created a Life peer as Baron Bradshaw, of Wallingford in the County of Oxfordshire in 1999.