Sir Roger Mark Jowell, CBE (26 March 1942 - 25 December 2011) was a British social statistician and academic.
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He was born in South Africa, and was active there in left-wing politics.
"As soon as I graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1964, I came to Britain - initially just to gain a broader perspective on my life. It wasn't that I had to leave, although as President of the Students’ Union I’d been heavily involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activities. At that time students were more or less immune from prosecution. But then things changed, and a few months after I arrived in Britain I got word that many of my close friends had been arrested. I realised then that I couldn’t go back - it wouldn’t have been safe. Once I got my British passport, I was able to go back fairly regularly." [1]
In 1969, Jowell and Gerald Hoinville founded Social & Community Planning Research (SCPR), which is now the London-based National Centre for Social Research, well-known for its British Social Attitudes Surveys.
Jowell was a Professor at City University, London until his death. He lectured and published widely and serves on the board of The UK Statistics Authority.
Jowell was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours. He gained the CBE in 2001.
Previously married to social worker and fellow Camden London Borough Councillor, Tessa Jowell, who went on to become a minister in Tony Blair's cabinet, he was divorced from her in the 1970s. He married Tessa Palmer, then a psychiatric social worker, in 1970 in Hampstead (in the borough of Camden). They divorced in 1977. In 1979, he married Nighat Gilani in Camden. They have two sons and divorced in 1995. In 1996 he married Sharon Witherspoon in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.