THE 50
MOST INFLUENTIAL
BRITONS
OF THE LAST 100 YEARS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
TIMPSON
Also available
The 50 Greatest Rugby Union Players of All Time
The 50 Greatest Walks of the World
The 50 Greatest Train Journeys of the World
Geoff Hursts Greats: Englands 1966 Hero Selects His Finest Ever Footballers
David Gowers Greatest Half-Century
THE 50
MOST INFLUENTIAL
BRITONS
OF THE LAST 100 YEARS
PETER PUGH
Published in the UK in 2015 by
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ISBN 978-178578-026-4
Text copyright 2016 Peter Pugh
The author has asserted his moral rights.
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Images courtesy of the Press Association, Rex/Shutterstock and Gary Cohen
Typeset and designed by Simmons Pugh
Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
P eter Pugh is a businessperson and company historian who has written more than 50 company histories on businesses from Rolls-Royce to Iceland Frozen Foods to Stannah Lifts. He is also the author of Introducing Thatcherism and Introducing Keynes from the well-known Introducing series. He lives by the sea in north Norfolk, and in Cambridge.
INTRODUCTION
T his book, indeed this series, is the result of my reading about a book published in the USA in 1978 called The Most Influential People Who Ever Lived. There was no Amazon in those days so I had to ask my parents, who were about to visit my brother in the USA, to bring me back a copy. They did, I read it and was totally fascinated. he author put Mohammad at number one, though as a historian I would have chosen Jesus Christ. He did not even put Christ at number two but an Englishman, Isaac Newton.
Anyway, it inspired me and now, at last, Icon Books is publishing a series of the 50 Greatest: 50 Greatest Footballers of All Time, 50 Greatest Cricketers of All Time, 50 Greatest Rugby Union Players of All Time, 50 Greatest Train Journeys of the World and 50 Greatest Walks of the World have already been published and here is the 50 Most Influential Britons of the Last 100 Years.
The last 100 years is important and I have interpreted it so that the person can have been born more than 100 years ago but his or her influence has resulted from their actions in the last 100 years. A classic example is Winston Churchill who was born in the 1870s but whose influence was in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Incidentally, when I was discussing my selection at dinner parties it was amazing how many people said that they thought the most influential person was Churchill. Clearly, they had not thought about the meaning of influential rather than greatest.
There was a danger that I would have too many politicians and certainly there are several but I wanted to include scientists, economists, entrepreneurs, authors, actors, artists, broadcasters and others. There is even someone connected to sport in there too. Although not a player he nevertheless has had a great deal of influence on our most popular sport, professional football.
Not everyone will agree with my 50 and certainly not the order in which I have put them and there will be plenty of What about ? and Surely should be in the top ten? If my choices spark disagreement and discussion so much the better.
Peter Pugh, December 2015
THE 50 MOST INFLUENTIAL BRITONS OF THE LAST 100 YEARS
50. SIR FREDDIE LAKER
Freddie Laker was one of the greatest, best-known and most popular British entrepreneurs of the second half of the 20th century. In simple terms, he revolutionised air travel.
He was born on 6 August 1922 in humble circumstances. His father left when he was only five and his mother worked as a cleaner. He was expelled from the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury. Apparently he was constantly boasting to his friends that he was going to be a millionaire.
His entrepreneurial career began soon after the end of the Second World War, in which he had served in the Air Transport Auxiliary, when he borrowed 38,000 (about 1.3 million today) to become a war-surplus aircraft dealer. His business prospered by being heavily involved in the Berlin Airlift to overcome the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 and 1949.
He sold his business in the 1950s and became Managing Director of British United Airways in 1960. In 1966 he formed Laker Airways and operated charter flights which cut prices way below the established airlines prices.
However, it was with his Skytrain flights across the Atlantic from 1977 that Laker really pioneered the cheap transatlantic flights which delighted passengers on the one hand and infuriated the established airlines on the other.
Before Skytrain it was only the rich and business travellers who could afford international flights. This state of affairs had been protected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which had ruled out competition on the basis that it might prejudice passenger safety. There was therefore an inefficient monopoly offering identical services at high prices.
The first Skytrain to New York in September 1977 offered a no-frills seat (i.e. no meals) for 59 (600 today) against the standard charge of 180 (1,800 today). By 1980 Laker was carrying one in seven transatlantic passengers. This forced the airlines to compete, and unfortunately a combination of this with a worldwide recession and a fall in the value of the pound sterling against the dollar drove Laker Airways into receivership in 1982.
Laker Airways had carried 3 million passengers on Skytrain between 1977 and 1982 and had changed for ever the prices people were prepared to pay for transatlantic and other international flights. I remember paying 450 (9,000 today) for return flights between Heathrow and New York in the late 1960s and you can still pay only 450 today.
Margaret Thatcher, before she became Prime Minister in 1979, supported Lakers championing of open markets in the 1970s as he struggled with legal battles against IATA for eleven years before he was able to launch Skytrain. Furthermore, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Airways owed a great deal to Lakers pioneering efforts, named one of his aircraft The Spirit of Sir Freddie. Laker became Sir Freddie Laker in 1978 as well as being voted Man of the Year.
