My wife, Gill Clisham, who has died aged 59 of heart failure, was the secretary of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) from 2001 to 2014. Though not an economist, she worked tirelessly throughout her career to ensure a wider understanding of the discipline and was instrumental in the inception and development of many successful initiatives, most notably the Westminster Economics Forum, a series of conferences she developed in partnership with the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council).
Gill was born in Wigan, the daughter of Marjorie (nee Barton), a health visitor, and Arthur McCaffery, a post office engineer. She arrived in the world following her mother’s previous eight miscarriages, and was valued by her parents as an only child. This prompted Gill to embrace life to the full.
