John Hilton (1880–1943) was the first

Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations The Montague Burton Professorships of Industrial Relations are three professorships in industrial relations at the University of Cambridge, Cardiff University and the University of Leeds. The professorships were established between 1929–30 and ...

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, broadcaster and

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Life

John Hilton was born in

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. After serving an

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as a mill mechanic, he worked as foreman and manager of engineering works before spending the period 1907-08 studying in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

.The papers of the John Hilton Bureau
/ref> After four years of lecturing and technical journalism, he became in 1912 the acting secretary of the Garton Foundation, newly established to propagate Norman Angell's ideas on international relations. In 1919 he joined the Ministry of Labour as Assistant Secretary and Director of Statistics. In 1931 he took up the newly established position of Professor of Industrial Relations at the

. In this period he made weekly broadcasts called ''This and that'' (1934–36) and ''This way out'' (1936–37), and wrote weekly articles and daily questions-and-answers in the ''

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'' (1936–39). On the outbreak of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he became in September 1939 Director of Home Publicity at the Ministry of Information, but stood down in the following June and resumed broadcasting, with ''John Hilton talking'', speaking largely to those affected directly and personally by the war, those in the Forces, those left behind and those subject to industrial conscription. He was approached in March 1942 by the News of the World to do the same sort of thing for the newspaper. So he became Director of the News of the World Industrial Advice Bureau which, after his death in August 1943, was renamed after him. Based in Cambridge the Bureau called on a panel drawn from dozens of professions with expertise to deal with readers' queries. It continued in peacetime until 1968, particularly addressing the public's concerns in their dealings with the

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Selected publications

* (sections on , and ) * ''Industrial Relations Inaugural Lecture'', Cambridge University Press, 1931 * ''This and That: the broadcast talks of John Hilton'', George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1938

References and sources

;References ;Sources * ''John Hilton, The Story of his Life'', by Edna Nixon, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1946 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hilton, John 1880 births 1943 deaths Professors of the University of Cambridge English male journalists English radio presenters English male non-fiction writers