Birthday profile

Tim Lankester

Tim Lankester, English economist and academic

Born
April 15, 1942
Age in 2026
84
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1942

About Tim Lankester

Sir Timothy Patrick Lankester, KCB (born 15 April 1942) is a retired British civil servant, a former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the first economic private secretary to Margaret Thatcher. Lankester is the son of Preb. Robin Prior Archibald Lankester and Jean Dorothy Gilliat. He was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset. After undertaking Voluntary Service Overseas in British Honduras (1960–61), he went up to St John's College, Cambridge (BA Economics, MA, Honorary Fellow), before completing an MA at Yale University. He worked for the World Bank, first in Washington, D.C., then in New Delhi (1970–73). From 1973 until 1995, he worked in the British Civil Service. He was Permanent Secretary at the Overseas Development Administration from 1989 until 1994. He left the British Civil Service after a brief spell in the Department for Education. Lankester sits on the board of the Aga Khan Foundation and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation in the UK. He was Director and Principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London from 1996 until 2000 and made an Honorary Fellow in 2002. He became President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 2001 and retired in 2009. Lankester is Chairman of the Council of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of the joint advisory board of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is also Chair of the Wells Maltings Trust, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Tim Lankester was born

Tim Lankester was born in 1942. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1942

  • #1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieCasablanca
  • Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
  • Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
  • Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
  • Defining fadRationing and war bonds
  • Notable inventionNapalm
  • World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Tim Lankester's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19422026
Gas$0.20$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population134.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.