Sir John Gerald Lang, GCB (20 December 1896 – 22 September 1984), was a British civil servant who held the position of

Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty Permanent may refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Permanent'' (film), a 2017 American film * ''Permanent'' (Joy Division album) * "Permanent" (song), by David Cook Other uses *Permanent (mathematics), a concept in linear algebra *Permanent (cycl ...

from 1947 to 1961.''The Times'', Obituary of Sir John Gerald Lang (26 September 1984).

Family and education

Lang was born in Woolwich, to George Thompson Lang, an engineering toolmaker, and his wife Rebecca Davies.''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Lang, Sir John Gerald
Retrieved 10 March 2021. He was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske's School in

Hatcham Hatcham was a manor and later a chapelry in what is now London, England. It largely corresponds to the area around New Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham. The ancient parish of Deptford straddled the counties of Surrey and Kent and there c ...

, London. In 1922 he married Emilie Jane Goddard (daughter of Henry Shelley Goddard), with whom he had one daughter. Emilie died in 1963, and in 1970 he married her sister, Kathleen Winifred Edmeades, the widow of Cecil George Elliott Edmeades.

Career

Lang entered the British

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 1914, joining the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

. During the First World War, he served with the Royal Marine Artillery before returning to the Civil Service. Appointed an assistant secretary in 1939, he was its Director of Labour during the Second World War, responsible for the recruitment, organisation and deployment of dockyard and shipyard labour. As under-secretary from 1946, he contributed to the reorganisation of naval manpower to a peacetime level. When the

, Sir Henry Vaughan Markham, died prematurely in December 1946, Lang was chosen as his successor. He was a highly regarded permanent secretary, and served from 1947 until his retirement in 1961. During this time he was also a

Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

Retirement

During retirement Lang served as vice-president of both the Royal Naval Association and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He was President of the Samuel Pepys Club and a member of the Navy Records Society and the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights. In 1969, during his time as the Government's principal adviser on sport (1964–1971) and Deputy Chairman of the Sports Council, he chaired a working group that produced a report on crowd control at football matches. Ministry of Housing and Local Government, ''Report of the Working Party on Crowd Behaviour at Football Matches (Chairman John Lang)'', Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (1969). Lang was also a governor and officer of

Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably '' Bedlam'', a 1946 film with ...

and Maudsley Hospital (1961–1970) and, in his eighties, an adviser to

Help the Aged Help the Aged was a United Kingdom based international charity founded in 1961 by Cecil Jackson-Cole and Hugh Faulkner to help disadvantaged older people who were affected by poverty, isolation and neglect. It merged with Age Concern in 2009 to f ...

. He died at Tadworth,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, at the age of 87.

Honours

Lang was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

, A Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, John 1896 births 1984 deaths Permanent Secretaries to the Admiralty Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Lords of the Admiralty Military personnel from London Royal Marines personnel of World War I Royal Marines ranks People from Woolwich