Harry Pilkington

William Henry Pilkington, Baron Pilkington (29 April 1905 – 23 December 1983) was an English glass manufacturer and president of the Federation of British Industries. He is remembered politically as chairman of the Pilkington Committee that produced the controversial Pilkington Report of 1962. He was also Chancellor of Loughborough University from 1966 to 1980.

Early life and education Pilkington was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the eldest son of Richard Austin Pilkington (1871-1951), JP, of Eccleston Grange, St Helens, a director of the family glass-manufacturing business, Pilkington Brothers Ltd, and his wife, Hope (1876-1947), daughter of the politician and judge Herbert Cozens-Hardy, 1st Baron Cozens-Hardy.

His younger brother, Lawrence, would join him as a director of the family business; the third brother was the biologist and writer Roger Pilkington. His sister Margaret was a Girl Guide leader, awarded an MBE and a Silver Fish Award for her work with the Guide International Service.

The Pilkington family was Congregationalist. He was educated at Rugby School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1967 the company controlled 85% of the glass-making business in the United Kingdom and exported its products to over 100 countries.

Pilkington Report

The Pilkington Report concluded that the British public were not being well-served by commercial television due to what it regarded as its American-influenced programming (such as westerns). It further concluded that although the British public had not been explicitly asked whether they wanted commercial radio, there was no evidence to support the contention that they wanted it. The unintended result of this conclusion was the creation of offshore commercial pirate radio in 1964. It also commended the BBC for the high quality of its television programming and recommended that the franchise for the-then third television channel should be granted to the BBC (which opened as BBC 2 in 1964), rather than to a commercial operator.

Personal life In 1930, Pilkington married Rosamond Margaret, daughter of Royal Army Medical Corps Colonel Henry Davis Rowan of Rathmore, Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland. Rosamond died in 1953, having had with her husband a son and two daughters. He subsequently married Mavis Joy Doreen, daughter of master reed-maker Gilbert Caffrey of Woodleigh, Lostock Park, Bolton, and former wife of Dr John Hesketh Wilding.

Pilkington was known for his 'warm-hearted personality'; when a young couple moved in nearby, they decided to grow roses but lacked the experience in pruning. The wife was acquainted with Pilkington's gardener at Windle Hall, and made a phone call; the then-Lady Pilkington answered, telling her 'I'll pass the message on, but Harry prunes all ours'- within the hour, Pilkington arrived at the couple's house by bicycle, equipped with pruning shears.

Even as a Governor of the Bank of England, Pilkington cycled around London, 'to the delight and consternation of those who knew him.'

Arms

Honours

Knighted in the 1953 New Years Honours List, Pilkington was created a Life Peer on 18 January 1968 in the 1968 New Years Honours List, taking the title Baron Pilkington, of St Helens in the County Palatine of Lancaster. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) by Loughborough University in 1966.