Frank Schon, Baron Schon

Frank Schon, Baron Schon (18 May 1912 – 7 January 1995) was an Austrian-born British industrialist and life peer, who served as Chairman of the National Research Development Corporation between 1969 and 1979.

Biography Schon was born in Vienna, the son of Dr Frederick Schon, a lawyer. He was educated at the Rainer Gymnasium. In 1931, he joined a chemicals firm with a subsidiary office in Prague, and studied law at the universities of Vienna and Prague as an external student.

In March 1939, ten days after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Schon, who was Jewish, escaped to Britain with his wife. He moved to Whitehaven and established Marchon Products, a chemicals firm, which became a leading supplier of detergent base. In 1956, he merged his firm with the rival firm Albright & Wilson, becoming a director of the latter. Due to a dispute with the board, he resigned from the firm in 1957. On 27 January 1976, Schon was created a life peer, as Baron Schon of Whitehaven, in the county of Cumbria.

He is buried in the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden.

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