Sir Edwin Alan Hitchman, KCB (16 November 1903 – 2 July 1980), commonly known as Alan Hitchman, was an English civil servant. Educated at

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

, the Sorbonne and the

Ecole des Sciences Politiques , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public university, Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , a ...

, he entered the civil service and joined the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

, beginning in 1926 as a junior grade in the administrative class. He worked in the ministry during the Second World War. In 1947, Hitchman was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) and moved to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

where he worked on plans for post-war reconstruction and was involved the devaluation of the pound. He was then

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

of the new Ministry of Materials from 1950 to 1952 and was promoted to Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1952.
The London Gazette
', 30 May 1952 (supplement, issue 39555), p. 3010. That year, he was appointed Permanent Secretary of the

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries may refer to one of several national organisations: * Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, formerly the ''Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing'' * Ministry of Agriculture (France) * Ministry o ...

, serving until 1955 when it became the

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

(MAFF); he was Permanent Secretary of this new ministry until 1959. From 1959, he sat on the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

, serving as its chairman from 1964 to 1966."Sir Alan Hitchman", ''The Times'' (London), 5 July 1980, p. 14. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchman, Alan 1903 births 1980 deaths English civil servants Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath University of Paris alumni British expatriates in France