Derek Birley

Sir Derek Birley (31 May 1926 – 14 May 2002) was a distinguished English educationalist and a prize-winning writer on the social history of sport, particularly, cricket.

Born in a mining community in West Yorkshire, Birley was educated, having won scholarships, at Hemsworth Grammar School, Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, and at Queen's College, Cambridge.

Birley wrote two cricket books: The Willow Wand (1979) and the classic A Social History of English Cricket (1999), (which won the Cricket Society's "Book of the Year Award" and the "William Hill Sports Book of the Year" in 1999).

The founding Rector of Ulster College (later Ulster Polytechnic), and later the founding Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, When Birley retired from education in 1991, he had overseen two decades of massive increases in provision of higher education in Northern Ireland.

A fervent English patriot and anti-fascist, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery from school in 1944, hoping to contribute to active service in the South-East Asian front. He was quickly transferred to the Intelligence Corps to be trained in Russian and Chinese, and sent to the Russian sector in Berlin, where he served 1944–1947 as a Russian interpreter.

Birley

Coordinates: 53°20′42″N 1°23′38″W / 53.345°N 1.394°W / 53.345; -1.394

Birley ward —which includes the districts of Base Green, Birley Estate, Charnock, Frecheville, Scowerdons and part of Hackenthorpe—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southeastern part of the city and covers an area of 5.1 km². The population of this ward in 2011 was 16,943 people in 7,393 households. It is one of the five wards that make up the Sheffield Attercliffe constituency.

Birley Estate (grid reference SK402830) is a housing estate in the southeastern part of Sheffield. It is built on what was Birley Moor just to the north of the small hamlet of Birley. Birley Spa to the northeast was a hotel and spa built in 1842 around a spring of mineral water. The building was restored in 2001/02 and is Grade II listed.

Base Green

Base Green (grid reference SK390833) is a housing estate to the west of Birley and east of Gleadless. It is built on the land that was formerly Basegreen Farm.

Birley (disambiguation)

Birley is an electoral ward in the city of Sheffield, England.

Birley may also refer to:

Birley (surname)

Birley is a common English surname, and may refer to any of the following people: