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Frederick Ogilvie

1893 – 1949

Director-General of the BBC

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About Frederick Ogilvie

Lived 1893 – 1949 (aged 56). Frederick Ogilvie was a teacher.

Sir Frederick Wolff Ogilvie FRSE (7 February 1893 – 10 June 1949) was a British broadcasting executive and university administrator, who was Director-General of the BBC from 19 July 1938 to 26 January 1942, and was succeeded by joint Directors-General Cecil Graves and Robert Foot. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast from 1934 to 1938. He was knighted by King George VI on 10 June 1942.

Early life and education Ogilvie was born in February 1893 in Valparaíso, Chile, the youngest son of Mary Ann (née Wolff) and William Maxwell Ogilvie, an engineer from Harrow Weald in northwest London. before beginning studying for a Literae humaniores degree at Balliol College, Oxford in 1911.

Ogilvie was one of the first British economists to recognise the significance of tourism. Ogilvie formulated one of the earliest social science definitions of "tourist" in the 1930s, defining the term as "any person whose movements fulfill two conditions: first, that absence from home is relatively short, and second, that money spent during absence is money derived from home and not in the place visited." He wrote on this subject in his book The Tourist Movement (1933), outlining how more expenditure on tourism could bring about faster growth in that area. He also contributed articles on economics and tourism to Chambers's Encyclopaedia. although an exception was recruiting Lindley Fraser to head the BBC's German service, where Fraser developed a large German audience throughout the war. Historian Asa Briggs described Ogilvie's period in office as "short, stormy and in some ways calamitous".

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Important facts

Birth century
Occupation
Education
Balliol College, Clifton College, Balliol College, Oxford, Packwood Haugh School
Positions held
Director-General of the BBC
Employers
British Broadcasting Corporation, University of Edinburgh
Awards
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Knight Bachelor
Also known as
Sir Frederick Wolff Ogilvie

Family & relationships

Child
Robert Maxwell Ogilvie

People in Frederick Ogilvie's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Frederick Ogilvie's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Frederick Ogilvie?

Director-General of the BBC

When was Frederick Ogilvie born?

Frederick Ogilvie was born on 7 February 1893 in Valparaíso.

When did Frederick Ogilvie die?

Frederick Ogilvie died on 10 June 1949 in Oxford.

What was Frederick Ogilvie's occupation?

Frederick Ogilvie was a teacher.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Frederick Ogilvie

· Wikidata: Q3087188

· DBpedia: Frederick Ogilvie

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Frederick Ogilvie. https://biography.guide/frederick-ogilvie/

MLA: "Frederick Ogilvie." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/frederick-ogilvie/.

Chicago: "Frederick Ogilvie." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/frederick-ogilvie/.

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