Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther

Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther (13 May 1907 – 5 February 1972) was a British economist, journalist, educationalist and businessman. He was editor of The Economist from 1938 to 1956. His major works include Economics for Democrats and An Outline of Money (1941).

Early life and education Crowther was born in Headingley, Leeds, on 13 May 1907, the son of Dr Charles Crowther (1876–1964), professor of agricultural chemistry at the University of Leeds, and his wife, Hilda Louise Reed.

In 1929 he was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship. He spent a year at Yale, where he met his wife Peggy and then, while nominally attached to Columbia University, he spent a year on Wall Street. From 1931 he worked in a London merchant bank and on the recommendation of John Maynard Keynes became an advisor on banking to the Irish Government. He married Peggy in 1932 and after a further recommendation from Keynes joined the staff of The Economist in the same year.

The Economist He joined The Economist in 1932 and was made deputy editor in 1935. In August 1938, he succeeded Walter Layton to become, at the age of 31, the youngest editor in the newspaper's history.

Under his editorship, The Economists circulation grew fivefold. It became one of the most influential journals in the world which eventually led, in 1972, to the raising of the school-leaving age to 16, and in which he coined the word 'numeracy'.

In 1971, he authored the Report of the Committee on Consumer Credit, the "Crowther Report", whose recommendations led to the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Until his death in 1972, he was chairman of the Royal Commission on the Constitution.

Other appointments Crowther served for several years on the board of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and was instrumental in ensuring its survival during the war years.

He served on the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and from 1944 was for a time on the editorial board of International Affairs.

He was editor of Transatlantic, a magazine published in the 1940s by Penguin Books, and was a regular participant on The Brains Trust on BBC radio. The youngest of the three brothers, Donald I. Crowther, obtained a first in natural science at Magdalen College, Oxford and became an associate editor at the BMJ.

Marriage

Crowther met Margaret Worth, who had won a scholarship to Yale Law School from Swarthmore College, in the library at Yale College in 1929. They married on 9 February 1932. They had six children, one of whom, Charles, went on to study economics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and became a journalist at the Financial Times, while another, Anne, was a prominent member of the Greater London Council prior to its dissolution in 1986. Their eldest child, Judith Vail, died in a car crash outside Boulogne-sur-Mer on 11 July 1955, aged 20.

Death Crowther died of a heart attack at Heathrow Airport on 5 February 1972 at the age of 64.

Awards and honours Crowther became a Knight Bachelor in 1957, and was awarded a life peerage on 28 June 1968 and became Baron Crowther, of Headingley in the West Riding of the County of York.

He also was awarded seven honorary degrees: Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, 1958 Hon LL.D. Nottingham, 1951 Hon D.Sc (Econ.) London, 1954 Hon LL.D. Swarthmore, 1957 Hon LL.D. Dartmouth, 1957 Hon LL.D. Michigan, 1960 Hon LL.D. Liverpool, 1961

Works An Introduction to The Study of Prices, 2nd Edition with W. Layton, 1935 Economics for Democrats, 1939 An Outline of Money, 1940