Brenda Willison has spent nearly four decades making herself heard over market-day crowds as the town crier of Peterborough, England. This week, Guinness World Records made it official: she is the loudest woman on Earth.
Willison's winning attempt came on Sept. 9, when she let loose with "oyez" — the traditional cry town criers use to call a crowd to attention, derived from Anglo-Norman French for "hear ye." A decibel meter clocked the shout at 105.9 decibels, loud enough to earn her two Guinness World Records titles at once: loudest town crier (female) and loudest shout by an individual (female).
A role she grew into by accident
Willison became Peterborough's town crier in 1987, almost by chance. At the time she managed catering at a country park with two cafes roughly a mile and a half apart, and when a local newspaper advertised for a town crier, her daughter wrote in suggesting her mother could already shout "chips" outside one cafe and be heard at the other.
She got the job, and has held the ceremonial post — proclaiming openings, royal occasions and civic events in full regalia — ever since. Even so, she says her record-setting shout undersold her: her official attempt, she has said, was not actually her loudest possible cry.
Willison's title complements, rather than competes with, the men's record. Earlier this year, Australian crier Joseph McGrail-Bateup was recognized as the loudest person overall after a 122.4-decibel shout of "now" in Canberra. Guinness tracks the men's and women's shouting records separately, meaning the two now hold the titles simultaneously on opposite sides of the world.
For Willison, the record is a fresh milestone in a craft many assumed was fading. Town criers remain a fixture of British civic tradition, turning out for royal visits, festivals and ribbon-cuttings in tricorn hats and sashes — and, as Guinness's decibel meter confirmed, losing none of their lung power along the way.