The death of Baroness Shirley Williams on Monday (April 12) has prompted swathes of tributes and biographies to be penned in her memory.

We have taken a quick look at how one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century is in fact connected to a church very close to Kenilworth.

Williams herself was not born in Warwickshire. She was raised in Chelsea, before going on to study at Somerville, Oxford. She eventually become a journalist for the Daily Mirror and the Financial Times before going on to make such a huge impact in politics.

Williams was the daughter of political scientist Sir George Caitlin, and nurse and writer Vera Brittain.

Neither Brittain nor Caitlin were born in Warwickshire. Caitlin grew up in Liverpool, before going on to study at Oxford, whilst Brittain was born in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, before also going on to Oxford for her education.

Brittain is well known for having delayed her studies to become a nurse during the First World War, during which she lost her brother, Edward, and her fiancé, Roland Leighton.

Her experiences were documented through a number of published works, most notably in 'A Testament of Youth'.

Her experiences of the war also led her to become an active pacifist, joining the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship before the Second World War.

Brittain and Caitlin married in 1925. The couple had two children together, Shirley and John, and enjoyed a long marriage before her death in 1970 at the age of 76.

Cailtin in fact married again in the year following Brittain's death, before he passed away in Southampton in 1979 aged 82.

Cailtin's remains however were transported to Warwickshire, and he was buried alongside his father in the graveyard of St James Church in Old Milverton.

Caitlin's father had been an Anglican Vicar in Leamington shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

As per the conditions of her will, half of Brittain's ashes were buried alongside her husband's at St James'.

The second half of her ashes are actually buried at the Granezza British Cemetery in Italy alongside those of her brother.

Whilst it may be a distant link between Baroness Williams and Old Milverton, it is a piece of local history that few people will surely be aware of.