John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith (July 20 1889 - June 16 1971), later Sir John Reith (1927-), then Baron Reith (1940-) established the British tradition of independent public service broadcasting.

Born at Stonehaven in Scotland, Reith received his education at Glasgow Academy and at Gresham's School, Holt. He became an engineer and then on December 14 1922 the General Manager (later Director-General from January 1 1927 to June 30 1938) of the infant BBC. He expounded firm principles of centralised, all-encompassing radio broadcasting, stressing programming standards and moral tone. To this day, the BBC claims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".

The first regular television broadcasts (November 1936 to September 1939) started under Reith's stewardship.

After leaving the BBC in 1938, he became chairman of Imperial Airways. In 1940 Reith 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.

The BBC Reith Lectures commemorate Lord Reith.

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The Lord Portal