Sir George Jefferson (26 March 1921 – 1 September 2012) was a British aeronautical engineer, and the first chairman of

British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...

(BT); he was largely responsible for its

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in 1984.

Early life

He attended a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

in north-west

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, leaving at the age of 16.

Career

Second World War

He was commissioned as an officer in the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

(RAOC), later joining REME. For the latter stages of the war he worked in government research, developing automated anti-aircraft weapons.

English Electric

In 1952 he became head of the guided weapon division of

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

(in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

BAC

BAC took over EE in 1960.

British Aerospace

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

took over BAC in 1977. At British Aerospace he looked after the development of the Rapier anti-aircraft missile, as head of the guided weapons division.

British Telecom

He was made deputy chairman of the Post Office (GPO), becoming the first chairman and chief executive of British Telecom on 1 September 1980. He saw through the company's privatisation. There was widespread hostility against its privatisation. This first privatisation of a British utility would mostly lay the ground for the subsequent privatisations of the 1980s; he largely made BT's privatisation take place. Jefferson retired in 1987.''Guardian'' obituary
/ref>

Personal life

He married in 1943, having three sons; his first wife died in 1998. He remarried. He received the

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1969 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1969 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lond ...

and was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

1981 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1981 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

. He later moved to Perth in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

References

External links

''Telegraph'' obituary
September 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, George 1921 births 2012 deaths British Aircraft Corporation British chief executives British Telecom people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal winners Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War II