5 Facts About Dame Shirley

1. In 2003, Dame Shirley received the Beacon Fellowship Prize for her contribution to countering autism and for her pioneering work in harnessing information technology for the public good.

2. In July 1939, Dame Shirley arrived at the age of five together with her nine-year-old sister Renate, to Britain as a Kindertransport child refugee.

3. Unlike the Dame Shirley letters, these letters did not showcase her talent for writing and instead made Louise appear less intellectual than she actually was.

4. Dame Shirley letters for which Louise is so well known were written between September 1851 and November 1852.

5. Dame Shirley started his college education at Princeton, but finished up at Brown University, graduating in 1848.