Shropshire pair make Who's Who 2017

They are Shirley Rogers, the Whitchurch-born and educated director of the Scottish Government's Health Workforce, and Oswestry-born Lord Harlech.

The pair are among a host of new names in the guide, including former world motor racing champion Lewis Hamilton and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

Who's Who contains potted biographies of 33,000 of some of the most famous, influential and talented people in the world.

But inclusion is by invitation only, so it is considered an honour to become a new entry.

Shirley Rogers, 52, born at Whitchurch in 1964 and was educated at Sir John Talbot's Grammar School in the town.

She has been director of the Scottish Government 's Health Workforce team since 2012.

Lord Harlech, 30, who was born at Oswestry, succeeded his father, the sixth Lord Harlech, who died earlier this year.

He started life as Jasset David Cody Ormsby Gore and is an Old Etonian property developer. His grandfather,the fifth Lord Harlech, was MP for Oswestry between 1950 and 1961 and was Britain's Ambassador in Washington between 1961 and 1965 when he became a close friend and confidant of US President John F.Kennedy. In 1967, four years after President Kennedy's assassination, Lord Harlech proposed to Kennedy's glamorous widow Jackie, but she turned him down. She later admitted she regretted the decision.

The Harlech family owned Brogynton Hall and its 1,445 acres near Oswestry.

Everyone in Who's Who is invited to compile his or her own entry, so entries can be as long as or as short as personalities.

In the 1997 edition of Who's Who, the late romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland required 222 lines or nearly a whole page to list her mostly literary achievements.

The entries of the Shropshire pair are comparatively brief and modest.

Lord Harlech tells his life story in just three-and-a-half lines, one of the shortest entries in Who's Who, while Shirley Rogers sums up her life and career in just nine lines,which is five lines fewer than the 14-line entry of US President Barack Obama and 11 lines fewer than the 20-line entry of Pope Benedict XVI.

Lord Harlech, Shirley Rogers and all the other new entries will now remain in Who's Who until they die, when they will be automatically transferred to Who's Who's sister publication, Who Was Who.

Other Midlands people entering the Who's Who guide this week include Wolves fan David Taylor, aged 56, who is senior vice president of Ingram Content Group and group managing director of Lightning Source UK. He attended the Municipal Grammar School in Wolverhampton.

Dr Alison Bruton, 56, head teacher at Queen Mary's High School in Walsall since 2009 and West Bromwich-born lawyer Penny Gilbert, 56, are also new additions.

Walsall-born barrister Sarah Lee QC, aged 50, has been included. Dame Glenys Stacey, 62, also from Walsall and now HM Chief Inspector of Probation is also the list.

The 2017 edition of Who's Who is published by A&C Black – and it will set you back £295.