Sir George Lewis Barstow (20 May 1874 – 29 January 1966) was a British civil servant and businessman. Barstow was born in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

. He then entered the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. In 1909, he was appointed a principal clerk in

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 ...

and shortly afterwards became an assistant secretary. He was appointed

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

(CB) in the 1913 New Year Honours. In 1918, he remarked that the planned provision of starting capital by the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...

for the development of electricity generating plants in the Midlands amounted to a form of

state capitalism State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital ...

whereby businessmen who had gained a footing in the Ministry of Munitions intended to modernise the British economy at the risk of the taxpayer. In 1919, he was appointed Controller of Supply Services at the Treasury, serving in the post until 1927. He was appointed

Knight Commander 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 ...

(KCB) in the 1920 New Year Honours. In 1927, he became government director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), holding the post until 1946. He also joined the board of the

Prudential Assurance Company Prudential plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working people. Prudential has dual primary listings on the London Stock E ...

, becoming deputy chairman and then being elected chairman in 1941. He was chairman until 1953.

Footnotes

References

*Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 31 January 1966 {{DEFAULTSORT:Barstow, George People educated at Clifton College 1874 births 1966 deaths People from York Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Anglo-Persian Oil Company Civil servants in HM Treasury English businesspeople Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath BP people