| The Right Honourable The Lord Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC |
|
|---|---|
| Director-General of the BBC | |
| In office 1927–1938 |
|
| Succeeded by | Frederick Ogilvie |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Charles Walsham Reith 20 July 1889 Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland |
| Died | 16 June 1971 (aged 81) Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Resting place | Rothiemurchus chapel, Inverness-shire, Scotland |
| Occupation | General manager and Chairman of the BBC (1922-1938) |
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 BBC (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. His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organizations around the world.
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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 United Free Church of Scotland (later amalgamated with Church of Scotland, and not to be confused with the Free Church of Scotland[1]). He was to carry the strict Presbyterian religious convictions of the Kirk forward into his adult life. Reith was educated at The Glasgow Academy then at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk.[2] He 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, a fast friend.[3] Though he readily found work at the Royal Albert Dock, his commission in the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) soon found him serving in World War I. He was struck in the cheek by a bullet in October 1915, at which time he was a Lieutenant, and transferred to the Royal Engineers. 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.[4] He was promoted to Captain in 1917, before transferring to the Royal Marine Engineers in 1918 as a Major. He returned to the Royal Engineers as a Captain in 1919 and resigned his Territorial Army commission in 1921.
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 Conservative group of MPs in the United Kingdom general election, 1922. Perhaps prophetically, that election's results were the first to be broadcast on the radio.
Reith had no broadcasting experience when he replied to an advertisement in The Morning Post for a General Manager for an as-yet unformed British Broadcasting Company in 1922. He later admitted that he felt he possessed the credentials necessary to manage any company.[5] He managed to retrieve his original application from the post box after re-thinking his approach, guessing that his Aberdonian background would curry more favour with Sir William Noble, the Chairman of the Broadcasting Committee.[6]
In his new role, he was, in his own words:[3]
... confronted with problems of which I had no experience: Copyright and performing rights; Marconi patents; associations of concert artists, authors, playwrights, composers, music publishers, theatre managers, wireless manufacturers.
In 1926 Reith famously came into conflict with the Government during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. The BBC bulletins reported, without comment, all sides in the dispute, including the TUC and other union leaders. Reith attempted to arrange a broadcast by the opposition Labour Party but it was vetoed by the government, and he had to refuse a request to allow a representative Labour or Trade Union leader to put the case for the miners and other workers. He even turned down a direct request from the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald who wanted to deliver a talk. MacDonald complained that the BBC was "biased" and was "misleading the public" and other Labour Party figures were just as critical. Philip Snowden, the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, was one of those who wrote to the Radio Times to complain.
Reith’s reply also appeared in the Radio Times, admitting the BBC had not had complete liberty to do as it wanted. He recognised that at a time of emergency the government was never going to give the company complete independence, and he appealed to Snowden to understand the constraints he had been under. He wrote:
... We do not believe that any other Government, even one of which Mr Snowden was a member, would have allowed the broadcasting authority under its control greater freedom than was enjoyed by the BBC during the crisis.[7]
The Labour leadership was not the only high-profile body denied a chance to comment on the strike. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, wanted to broadcast a "peace appeal" drawn up by church leaders which called for an immediate end to the strike, renewal of government subsidies to the coal industry and no cuts in miners’ wages.
Davidson telephoned Reith about his idea on 7 May, saying he had spoken to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, who had said he would not stop the broadcast, but would prefer it not to happen.[8] Reith later wrote:
...A nice position for me to be in between Premier and Primate, bound mightily to vex one or other.[9]
Reith asked for the government view and was advised not to allow the broadcast because he suspected if it went ahead it would give the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill, an excuse to commandeer the BBC. Churchill had already lobbied Baldwin to that effect.[10] Reith rang the Archbishop to turn him down and explain that he feared if the talk went ahead, the government might take the company over.
Reith admitted to his staff that he regretted the lack of TUC and Labour voices on the airwaves. Nonetheless, many commentators have seen Reith's stance during that period as pivotal in establishing the state broadcaster's enduring reputation for impartiality.[11]
After the strike ended, the BBC’s Programme Correspondence Department analysed the reaction to the coverage. Some 3,696 people complimented the BBC; 176 were critical.[12]
The British Broadcasting Company was part-share owned by a committee of members of the wireless industry, including British Thomson-Houston, General Electric, Marconi and Metropolitan-Vickers. However, Reith had been in favour of the company being taken into public ownership, as he felt that despite the boards under which he had served so far allowing him a high degree of latitude on all matters, not all future members might do so.[13] Although opposed by some (including in Government), the BBC became a corporation in 1927. Reith was knighted the same year.
Reith's autocratic approach became the stuff of BBC legend. His preferred approach was one of benevolent dictator, but with built-in checks to his power. Throughout his life Reith remained convinced that that approach was the best way to run an organisation.[14] Later Director-General Greg Dyke, profiling Reith in 2007, noted that the term Reithian has entered the dictionary to denote a style of management, particularly with relation to broadcasting.[15] Reith summarized the BBC's purpose in three words: educate, inform, entertain; this remains part of the organisation's mission statement to this day.[16][17] It has also been adopted by broadcasters throughout the world, notably the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States.
Reith earned a reputation for prudishness in sexual matters. There is an old BBC legend that he once caught an announcer kissing a secretary and decreed that in future he must not read the late night religious programme, The Epilogue. In fact this may have been inspired by his catching the Chief Engineer, Captain Eckersley, not just kissing but en flagrante with an actress on a studio table.
He was to be somewhat embarrassed when one of his staff ran off with the quite new wife of the then rising young writer Evelyn Waugh and he also had to deal with Eckersley after he had a rather public affair with a married woman also on the staff. Up to World War II any member of BBC staff involved in a divorce could lose their job though in his biography of Reith Ian McIntyre records that after his BBC days Reith himself may have had an affair with a colleague.
In 1936 Reith directly oversaw the abdication broadcast of Edward VIII. By then his style had become well-established in the public eye. He personally introduced the ex-King (as 'Prince Edward'), before standing aside to allow Edward to take the chair. Doing so, Edward accidentally knocked the table leg with his foot, which was picked up by the microphone. Reith later noted in an interview with Malcolm Muggeridge that the headlines interpreted that as Reith 'slamming the door' in disgust before Edward began broadcasting.[18]
Reith was invited to resign his post at the BBC in 1938 by Neville Chamberlain by being made the offer of the chairmanship of Imperial Airways. Some commentators[19] have suggested a conspiracy amongst the Board of Governors to remove him, but that has never been proved.[20] He left Broadcasting House with no ceremony (at his request) but in tears. That evening he attended a dinner party before driving out to Droitwich to close down a transmitter personally. He signed the visitor's book J.C.W. Reith, late BBC.[21][22]
The term 'Reithianism' describes certain principles of broadcasting associated with Lord Reith. These include an equal consideration of all viewpoints, probity, universality and a commitment to public service. It can be distinguished from the free-market approach to broadcasting, where programming aims to attract the largest audiences or advertising revenues, ahead of - and, in practice, often contrary to - any artistic merit, impartiality, educative or entertainment values, that a programme may have.
In 1940 Reith was appointed Minister of Information in Chamberlain's government. So as to perform his full duties he became a Member of Parliament (MP) 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 by being created Baron Reith of Stonehaven.
During that period the city centres of Coventry, Plymouth and Portsmouth were destroyed by German bombing. Reith urged the local authorities to begin planning the postwar reconstruction. He was dismissed from his government post by Churchill, because, as he stated, he found Reith difficult to work with.
Understandably, Reith's animosity towards Churchill continued. When offered the post of Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (one he had long coveted), he could not bring himself to accept it, noting in his diary: "Invitation from that bloody shit Churchill to be Lord High Commissioner."[23]
He took a naval commission as a Lieutenant-Commander of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) on the staff of the Rear-Admiral Coastal Services. In 1943 he 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.
The BBC Reith Lectures were instituted in 1948 in his honour. These annual radio talks, with the aim of advancing "public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest"[24] have been held every year since, with the exception of 1992.
The Independent Television Authority was created on 30 July 1954 ending the BBC's broadcasting monopoly. Lord Reith did not approve of its creation. Speaking at the Opposition dispatch box in the Lords, he stated:
... 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.[25]
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 Roman 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. When he visited the BBC to record the programme, work was being undertaken, and Reith noticed with dismay the 'girlie' pin-ups of the workmen. However one picture was of a Henry Moore sculpture. "A Third Programme carpenter, forsooth," he growled.[26]
In the interview he expressed his disappointment at not being "fully stretched" in his life, especially after leaving the BBC. He claimed that he could have done more than Churchill gave him to do during the war. He also disclosed an abiding dissatisfaction with his life in general. He admitted not realising soon enough that "life is for living," and suggested he perhaps still did not acknowledge that fact. He also stated that since his departure as Director-General, he had watched almost no television and listened to virtually no radio. "When I leave a thing, I leave it," he said.[13]
In his later years 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 took a personal interest in the preservation of the early 19th century frigate HMS Unicorn in 1962.[27]
He was also appointed Lord Rector of Glasgow University from 1965 to 1968. In 1967 he finally accepted the much-cherished post of Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. His final television appearance was in a three-part documentary series entitled Lord Reith Looks Back in 1967, filmed at Glasgow University.
At the age of 81, he died in Edinburgh after a fall. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes were buried at the ancient, ruined chapel of Rothiemurchus in Inverness-shire.
Reith wrote two volumes of autobiography: Into The Wind in 1956 and Wearing Spurs in 1966. Two biographical volumes appeared shortly after his death: Only the Wind Will Listen by Andrew Boyle (1972), and an edited volume of his diaries (1975). It was not until The Expense of Glory (1993) by Ian McIntyre that Reith's unexpurgated diaries and letters were published.
In 1975 excerpts from Reith's diary were published which showed he had, during the 1930s, harboured pro-fascist views.[28] On 9 March 1933 he wrote: “I am pretty 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.” [29] After the July 1934 Night of The Long Knives, in which the Nazis ruthlessly exterminated their internal dissidents, Reith wrote: “I really admire the way Hitler has cleaned up what looked like an incipient revolt.” [30] After Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Nazis in 1939 he wrote: “Hitler continues his magnificent efficiency.” [31] Reith also expressed admiration for Mussolini.[32]. Reith's daughter, Marista Leishman, revealed how her father in the 1930s did everything possible to keep Winston Churchill and other anti-appeasement Conservatives off the airwaves. [33]
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title Incorporation of the BBC
|
Director-General of the BBC 1927–1938 |
Succeeded by Frederick Ogilvie |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by William Craven-Ellis Charles Barrie |
Member of Parliament for Southampton 1940–1940 With: William Craven-Ellis |
Succeeded by William Craven-Ellis 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 |
Office renamed |
| New title | Minister of Works & Buildings and First Commissioner of Works 1940–1942 |
Office renamed |
| New title | Minister of Works and Planning 1942 |
Succeeded by The Lord Portal |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Albert Lutuli |
Rector of the University of Glasgow 1965–1968 |
Succeeded by George MacLeod |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Reith 1940–1971 |
Succeeded by Christopher Reith |