Today’s birthdays

Mr Sonny Ramadhin, former West Indies cricketer, is 89; Mr Naim Attallah, publisher, 87; Sir Bob Reid, company chairman, 84; Prof Phillip King, sculptor; President, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999-2004; 84; Mr Ian Curteis, dramatist, 83; Mr Julian Mitchell, writer, 83; Miss Una Stubbs, actress, 81; Sir John Wheeler, former Conservative Government Minister, 78; Miss Joanna Lumley, actress, 72; Prof Paul Wright, Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, 2000-11, now Emeritus, 72; Mr Gordon Greenidge, former West Indies cricketer, 67; Mr Antony Worrall Thompson, chef and restaurateur, 67; Lord

Justice Lewison 66; Sir Peter Smith, a former High Court Judge, 66; Mr Archie Norman, businessman and former politician; Chairman, Marks and Spencer, 64; Sir Michael Stevens,

Keeper of the Privy Purse, 60;

Judge Hilliard, QC, Recorder of

London, 59; Mr Steve Cauthen, former jockey; three times Champion Jockey, 58; and Lady

Sarah Chatto, daughter of the late Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon, 54.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, in 1769. It is also the anniversary of the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in 1851.