Jane Attenborough

Jane Mary Attenborough (30 September 1955 – 26 December 2004) was an English arts administrator and arts manager. The eldest daughter of the actor and filmmaker Richard Attenborough and the actress Sheila Sim, she began her career as overseas membership secretary at the Royal Academy of Dance. Attenborough later worked for the Arts Council of Great Britain in its national touring programme before moving to the Rambert Dance Company as dance liaison officer, expanding its education programme from schools activities to local community events.

She died together with her daughter Lucy and mother-in-law in the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami while holidaying in Thailand on 26 December 2004.

Early life and education Jane Mary Attenborough was born on 30 September 1955 in London. She was the eldest daughter of the actor and filmmaker Richard Attenborough and the actress Sheila Sim. Attenborough had two siblings: Michael and Charlotte. From her childhood, Attenborough was raised amongst people from the artistic world and she was focused on addressing a concern that many individuals lacked an opportunity to participate in the arts. Attenborough was educated at the Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, before going on to enroll on a sociology course at the University of Sussex from 1973 to 1976. She subsequently joined the Arts Council of Great Britain and was assigned to its national touring programme, where she assisted consultant Jodi Myers. In 1979, she joined the Rambert Dance Company as dance liaison officer, where she expanded its education programme from traditional schools activities to encompass local community events. From 1980 to 1985 she was the press and public relations officer. Her husband Michael Holland and two other children survived. Her death, alongside that of her daughter and mother-in-law, was widely covered in the British press, given her contributions to the arts and her family's public profile.

In March 2005, a memorial service was held at Southwark Cathedral, Dance UK established the Jane Attenborough One Dance UK Industry Award in recognition of "an individual working in dance who has made an outstanding contribution to the art form." In 2011, the winner of this award was Gill Clarke. From 2005 to 2009, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation honoured Attenborough with the two-year £50,000 Jane Attenborough Dance in Education Fellowship, which aimed "to enable a dance company to provide practical assistance, mentoring and training to help a dancer coming to the end of his or her career to make a successful transition to education and community work."

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation also funded the construction of a drama and music facility, the Jane Holland Creative Centre for Learning at Waterford Kamhlaba in Eswatini, which was opened by Lord and Lady Attenborough in November 2006 in honour of their eldest daughter. Her alma mater, the University of Sussex, named a small studio in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts after her in 2015.