Mayor of Manchester (1975–76), High Sheriff of Greater Manchester from 1978 to 1979, and the prime motivator in the creation of the Royal Northern College of Music. She was made a Freeman of the City of Manchester and was an advisor on educational matters to Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s. She was President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications from 1978 to 1979. She published at least 26 mathematical papers, her best-known contribution being to most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares. Upon her death, she left a legacy in trust to support distinguished research visitors and public engagement activities at the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester. An annual public lecture at the university is named in her honour. An amateur astronomer, Ollerenshaw donated her telescope to Lancaster University, and an observatory there bears her name. She was an honorary member of the Manchester Astronomical Society and held the post of vice-president for a number of years. Ollerenshaw attended St Leonards School in St Andrews, Fife, and served as the school's president from 1981 to 2003. She was succeeded by Baroness Byford, Conservative spokeswoman in the House of Lords. She turned 100 in October 2012. She died in Didsbury on 10 August 2014, at the age of 101. Her husband and both their children had predeceased her. Honours and legacy In 1970, Ollerenshaw was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to education. Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies dedicated his Naxos Quartet No.9 to her. References Bibliography Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, To Talk of Many Things: an autobiography, Manchester Univ Press, 2004, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, David S. Brée: Most-perfect Pandiagonal Magic Squares: their construction and enumeration, Southend-on-Sea: Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, 1998, 186 pages, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Herman Bondi, Magic Squares of Order Four, Scholium Intl, 1983, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, First Citizen, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1977, K. M. Ollerenshaw; D. S. Brée, "Most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares", in: Mathematics Today, 1998, vol. 34, pp. 139–143. . D. S. Brée and K. M. Ollerenshaw, "Pandiagonal magic-squares from mixed auxiliary squares", in: Mathematics Today, 1998, vol. 34, pp. 105–118. . Kathleen Ollerenshaw. 1944 The Critical Lattices of a Square Frame. Journal of the London Mathematical Society 19:75 part 3, pp. 178–184, The Critical Lattices of a Square Frame External links Interview on BBC Radio 4 Manchester Politicians, with biographical sketch The Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Observatory at Lancaster University The Manchester