Sir Henry Ernest Marking (11 March 1920 - 16 May 2002) KCVO

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 ...

was a British businessman and a former chairman and chief executive of British European Airways (BEA), which became

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

Early life

He was the son of a butcher, born in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. He attended

Saffron Walden Grammar School Saffron Walden Free Grammar School (or Saffron Walden Grammar School) was a school in the Essex town of Saffron Walden, which for over four hundred years educated the boys of the town and surrounding villages in a manner designed to be after the ...

Career

World War II

He was an army officer in the Second World War, being awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

(MC) in 1944 for conduct in the Battle of Anzio in February 1944. He served in North Africa, Italy and the Middle East (Egypt) with the Second Battalion of the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...

. He was an intelligence officer. In September 1944 he studied for a year at the

Middle East Centre for Arab Studies The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS) was an Arabic language college created by the British Army during World War II in Jerusalem, and relocated afterwards as a civilian institution to Lebanon near Beirut where it functioned between 1947� ...

(MECAS), where he learnt Arabic. He then went to

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL) to read Law, having started in 1938.

British European Airways

He joined British European Airways in the legal department, becoming company secretary in October 1950. He became chief executive on 1 April 1964. In the 1950s he joined a government committee on customs law. He became involved with the Institute of Transport (now the CILT) as a consultant on

aviation law Aviation law is the branch of law that concerns flight, air travel, and associated legal and business concerns. Some of its area of concern overlaps that of admiralty law and, in many cases, aviation law is considered a matter of international ...

and the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows, ...

, where he planned its first air transport course in 1956. He became chairman of BEA on 1 January 1971. Under his leadership,

British Airtours British Airtours (stylised as British aırtours) was a British charter airline with flight operations out of London Gatwick and Manchester Airports. Established as BEA Airtours in 1969, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways ...

began in 1969 as BEA Airtours, taking its first commercial flight on 6 March 1970 from

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

. He became chairman on 1 January 1971. In April 1971, BEA was restructured into ten separate operating units. Later in 1971 he was involved with the new

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is a wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus. In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a large airliner. West ...

, as a possible replacement for BEA's main

Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA ...

fleet. On 2 May 1969, the Edwards Committee (led by Sir Ronald Edwards) had been published, which recommended that BEA merged with BOAC, which the government made a decision to proceed with in May 1972; the British Airways Group was formed on 1 September 1972, becoming the fully-fledged British Airways in April 1974.

British Airways

He was on the board of British Airways from 1971-80. In January 1977 British Airways adopted a single functional structure. He left British Airways at the end of August 1977, at the age of 57, having spent 28 years in the airline industry.

British Tourist Authority

On 4 August 1977 he was named as the Chairman of the British Tourist Authority (BTA) to take over on 1 September 1977 (since 2003 called VisitBritain);''Times'' Friday 5 August 1977, page 16 on his appointment he said ''I want visitors to see something other than London, the real Britain does not lie in the metropolis''. Knowing the west of Essex well, he campaigned against the building of

Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

Personal life

He was awarded the

in the

1969 Birthday Honours The 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours were appointments to orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms to reward and highlight citizens' good works, on the occasion of the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. They were announced in supplem ...

, and the knighted in the

1978 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1978 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, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginn ...

. He died in 2002 aged 82. He never married. He lived to the west of the M11 in

Uttlesford Uttlesford is a local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the market town of Saffron Walden. At the 2011 Census, the population of the district was 79,443. Other notable settlements include Great Dunmow, Elmdon, S ...

References

External links

British Airways 1970-79
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marking, Henry 1920 births 2002 deaths Alumni of University College London British airline chief executives British Airways people British Army personnel of World War II British European Airways Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order People educated at Saffron Walden Grammar School People from Saffron Walden Recipients of the Military Cross