George Bishop (civil servant)

Sir George Sidney Bishop CB OBE (15 October 1913 – 9 April 1999) was a British civil servant and businessman.^[1]

Early life

George Bishop was born near Wigan in Lancashire.

Education

Bishop attended Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School and the London School of Economics to read Economics and Government under Harold Laski.

Career

Bishop's first job was for a Quaker organisation in South Wales which assisted the unemployed through subsistence production. On the outbreak of the second world war he moved to the Ministry of Food as a statistician, subsequently running its Emergency Services division.

After the war Bishop became a private secretary to ministers of food Ben Smith and John Strachey. Bishop was active in winding up the disastrous groundnut oil scheme. In 1959 he was promoted to Deputy Secretary, then the youngest such appointment ever.

In 1961 Bishop moved to the then sugar company Booker McConnell, becoming vice-chairman in 1970 and chairman in 1972. He was knighted in 1975 and retired in 1979.^[2]

Exploration

Having climbed his first mountain at the age of 8, Bishop regularly climbed in North Wales, the Lake District and Scotland. He and second wife Una went on 18 expeditions to the Himalayas. For the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was president 1983-87, he mounted a scientific expedition to the Kimberley area of Western Australia. He made the first crossing of the King Leopold Range there with Una.

Personal life

He married Marjorie Woodruff in 1940; they had one daughter but the marriage was dissolved in 1961. In the same year he remarried Una C.C. Padel, daughter of Charles Padel. Lady Bishop died in 2015 at the age of 96.^[3]

References

↑ ‘BISHOP, Sir George (Sidney)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 24 Sept 2013
↑ Jonathan Taylor (17 April 1999). "Obituaries: Sir George Bishop". The Independent. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
↑ BISHOP

Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society

19th century	Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich George Murray Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet William Richard Hamilton George Bellas Greenough Roderick Murchison Charles Abbot, 2nd Baron Colchester W. J. Hamilton William Henry Smyth Roderick Murchison Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere Frederick William Beechey Roderick Murchison Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton Roderick Murchison Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Henry Bartle Frere Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Rutherford Alcock Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne Richard Strachey Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff Sir Clements Robert Markham

20th century	George Taubman Goldie Leonard Darwin George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Douglas Freshfield Thomas Holdich Francis Younghusband Lawrence Dundas, Earl of Ronaldshay David George Hogarth Charles Close William Goodenough Percy Zachariah Cox Henry Balfour Philip Chetwode, 1st Baron Chetwode George Clark Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell Harry Lindsay James Wordie James Marshall-Cornwall Roger Nathan, 2nd Baron Nathan Raymond Priestley Dudley Stamp Gilbert Laithwaite Edmund Irving Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton Duncan Cumming John Hunt, Baron Hunt Michael Wise Vivian Fuchs George Bishop Roger Chorley, 2nd Baron Chorley Crispin Tickell George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne

21st century	Ronald Urwick Cooke Neil Cossons Gordon Conway Michael Palin Judith Rees

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