Born in 1930 in Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire, Ted Hughes came up to Pembroke in 1951 to study English. He transferred to Archaeology and Anthropology in his third year. During his time at Pembroke he lived variously in the Red Buildings (October 1951-June 1952, room H 1 B, shared with Paul Standing in room H 1 A), New Court (October 1952-June 1953, room N 8 B) and Old Court (October 1953-June 1954, room E 1). In June 1956 he married the American poet Sylvia Plath, who took her own life in 1963. They had 2 children, Frieda Rebecca and Nicholas Farrar (1962-2009). In the summer of 1962, Hughes began an affair with Assia Wevill, with whom he would have a daughter, Alexandra Tatiana Elise (nicknamed Shura). Wevill took her own life and that of their daughter Shura in March 1969. In August 1970 he married Carol Orchard, who survives him. Best known as a poet, Hughes was also a translator, dramatist, children's writer and environmentalist, being one of the original trustees of the Westcountry Rivers Trust. He was awarded an OBE in 1977 and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984, holding the office until his death in 1998. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College in 1986. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received the Order of Merit from the queen at Buckingham Palace in October 1998, just 2 weeks before he died.