Scottish executive, General Manager of the British Broadcasting Company from 1922, subsequently the first Director-General of the BBC 1927-38. He was made a Baron 1940. Lord Reith was associated with certain principles of broadcasting. These include an equal consideration of all viewpoints, probity, universality and a commitment to public service, and still form part of the BBC’s mission statement today.
During the 1926 General Strike, Reith attempted to broadcast statements from all sides of the dispute, but was prevented by the government from so doing. Winston Churchill had lobbied that the government should take over the BBC.
Reith, by 1938, had become discontented with his role as Director-General, asserting in his autobiography that the organisational structure of the BBC that he had created had left him with insufficient work to do. He was invited by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to become chairman of Imperial Airways, the country’s most important airline and one which had fallen into public disrepute because of its inefficiency. Some commentators have suggested a conspiracy amongst the Board of Governors to remove him, but that has never been proved, and there is no record of such a thing in his memoir. He left Broadcasting House with no ceremony (at his request) but in tears.
During the second world war he was appointed Minister of Information by prime minister Neville Chamberlain and became a member of Parliament, but was moved sideways to another post when Winston Churchill became prime minister. He was eventually sacked 2 years later by Churchill with whom he had a life long difficult relationship. After the war he continued as a public servant in various posts.
He died in Edinburgh, after a fall, on 16th June 1971.
Link to Wikipedia biography