John Reith, 1st Baron Reith

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John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC (20 July 1889–16 June 1971) was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922 he was employed by the commercial monopoly registered as the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd. as its General Manager; in 1923 he became its Managing Director and in 1927 he was employed as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation created under a Royal charter.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Later life 3 Claim that Reith was a Nazi sympathiser 4 Reference 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Born at Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Reith was the youngest, by ten years, of the seven children of the Revd Dr George Reith, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was to carry the strict Presbyterian religious convictions of the Free Church forward into his adult life. Reith was educated at the Glasgow Academy then at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. Reith was an indolent child who had used his intelligence to escape hard work but he was genuinely disappointed when his father refused to support any further education and apprenticed him an engineer at the North British Locomotive Company. Reith had been a keen sportsman at school and only learnt to tolerate his apprenticeship through part-time soldiering in the 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers and 5th Scottish Rifles.

In 1914, Reith left Glasgow for London, largely in pursuit of a 17 year-old schoolboy, Charlie Bowser, on whom he appears to have formed something of a crush. Though he readily found work at the Royal Albert Dock, his commission in the 5th Scottish Rifles soon found him serving in World War I, being invalided out when struck in the cheek by a bullet in October 1915. He spent the next two years in the United States, supervising armament contracts, and became attracted to the country, fantasising of moving there with Bowser after the war.

On his return to the UK, Reith and Bowser both fell in love with Muriel Odhams. Reith won Muriel's hand but warned her that she must share me with C.^{[citation needed]} He sought to redress the asymmetry by finding a partner for Bowser but Reith's subsequent jealousy interrupted the men's friendship, much to Reith's pain.

However, the end of the war saw a reconciliation, with Reith's return to Glasgow as General Manager of an engineering firm and Bowser becoming his assistant. But the lure of London proved too much for Reith and in 1922, he returned there. Dabbling in politics, despite his family's Liberal Party sympathies, he ended up working as secretary to the London Unionist group of MPs in the United Kingdom general election, 1922. Perhaps prophetically, this election's results were the first to be broadcast on the radio.

[edit] Later life

After leaving the BBC in 1938, Reith became chairman of Imperial Airways. In 1940 he was appointed Minister of Information in the government of Neville Chamberlain. So as to perform his full duties he became a Member of Parliament for Southampton. When Chamberlain fell and Churchill became Prime Minister his long running feud with Reith led to the latter being moved to the Ministry of Transport. He was subsequently moved to become First Commissioner of Works which he held for the next two years, through two restructurings of the job, and was also transferred to the House of Lords becoming Baron Reith of Stonehaven.

During this period the town centers of Coventry, Plymouth and Portsmouth were destroyed by German bombing. Reith urged the local authorities to begin planning the post war reconstruction. He was dismissed from his government post by Churchill who stated that he found Reith difficult to work with.

He took a naval commission as a Lieutenant-Commander of the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (RNVR) on the staff of the Rear-Admiral Coastal Services. In 1943 was promoted to Captain (RNVR), and appointed Director of the Combined Operations Material Department at the Admiralty, a post he held until early 1945.

In 1946 he was appointed chairmanship of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board - a post he held until 1950. He was then appointed chairman of the Colonial Development Corporation which he held until 1959. In 1948 he was also appointed the chairman of the National Film Finance Corporation, an office he held until 1951.

He also held directorships at the Phoenix Assurance Company, Tube Investments Ltd,the State Building Society (1960 - 1964) and was the vice-chairman of the British Oxygen Company (1964 - 1966). He was Lord Rector of Glasgow University (1965 - 1968). In 1967 he was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Independent Television Authority was created on July 30, 1954 ending the BBC's existing broadcasting monopoly. Lord Reith did not approve of its creation: "Somebody introduced Christianity into England and somebody introduced smallpox, bubonic plague and the Black Death. Somebody is minded now to introduce sponsored broadcasting ... Need we be ashamed of moral values, or of intellectual and ethical objectives? It is these that are here and now at stake."

In November 1955 Cable & Wireless moved from Electra House Embankment into its new headquarters in Theobalds Road, London. The building was named Mercury House after the Greek messenger of the gods and was officially opened by Lord Reith in December 1955.

In 1960 he returned to the BBC for an interview with John Freeman in the television series Face to Face.

He wrote two autobiographies: 'Into The Wind' in 1956 and 'Wearing Spurs' in 1966.

The BBC Reith Lectures instituted in 1948 commemorate Lord Reith.

[edit] Claim that Reith was a Nazi sympathiser

A biography, My Father — Reith of the BBC, written by his daughter Marista Leishman, was published on 29 September 2006. In it she claims that her father was a Nazi sympathiser who abhorred Jews. He banned the playing of jazz music on the BBC, and Leishman says that he wrote in his diary that "Germany has banned hot jazz and I’m sorry that we should be behind in dealing with this filthy product of modernity." Leishman says that on 9 March 1933 Reith wrote "I am certain that the Nazis will clean things up and put Germany on the way to being a real power in Europe again . . . They are being ruthless and most determined"; and in March 1939, when Prague was occupied, he wrote: "Hitler continues his magnificent efficiency."^[1]

His daughter portrays a man who was both 'magnificent and impossible'. His contrary character and skills of organisation and oratory enabled him to build public service broadcasting and set the standards for future generations and broadcasters everywhere to aspire to. These same traits resulted in him making controversial statements for their own shock-value and making life at home difficult as the family danced around his contrary moods.

[edit] Reference

1. ^ Lord Reith revered Hitler, says daughter, Sunday Times Scotland, 24 September 2006

My Father - Reith of the BBC by Marista Leishman, published by Saint Andrew Press 29 September 2006. Illustrated.

[edit] External links

• Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
• Extract from Face to Face interview

Media Offices
Preceded by (new office)	Director-General of the BBC 1927–1938	Succeeded by Sir Frederick Ogilvie
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Craven-Ellis and Charles Barrie	Member of Parliament for Southampton 2-seat constituency (with William Craven-Ellis) 1940–1940	Succeeded by William Craven-Ellis and William Stanley Russell Thomas
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Macmillan	Minister of Information 1940	Succeeded by Alfred Duff Cooper
Preceded by Euan Wallace	Minister of Transport 1940	Succeeded by John Moore-Brabazon
Preceded by The Lord Tryon	First Commissioner of Works 1940	Succeeded by (office replaced)
Preceded by (new office)	Minister of Works & Buildings and First Commissioner of Works 1940–1942	Succeeded by (office replaced)
Preceded by (new office)	Minister of Works and Planning 1942	Succeeded by The Lord Portal
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Reith 1940–1971	Succeeded by Christopher Reith