John Reith, The Rt. Hon. The Lord Reith KT GVCO GBE CB TD PC (1889 –1971)
The Steeple Times
“Dictatorship tempered with an amount of human decapitation” was his style as Director-General of the BBC. This Presbyterian didn’t get on with Churchill as he felt he could have done a better job himself. John Reith was emancipated by a booze fuelled sailing trip with the governor of the Bank of England without his wife and subsequently encouraged drinking in the offices of the BBC. When he left the corporation, he vented his outrage whenever they played jazz music.
