John Leonard King, Baron King of Wartnaby (29 August 1917 – 12 July 2005) was a British businessman, who was noted for leading

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 ...

from an inefficient, nationalised company to one of the most successful airlines of recent times. This success was a flagship of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's privatisation programme. He was also directly involved with the " dirty tricks" campaign waged by British Airways against

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and ...

Early life and career

King was born in Brentford,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. His father, Albert John King, had fought in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and later worked as a postman; his Irish-born mother, Kathleen King, worked as a seamstress. He was the second of four children. He was reared on a small property attached to a public house in

Dunsfold Dunsfold is a village in the borough of Waverley, Surrey, England, 8.7 miles (14 kilometres) south of Guildford. It lies in the Weald and reaches in the north the southern escarpment of the Greensand Ridge. It includes the Wey and Arun Canal ...

, Surrey. He left school in 1929 at the age of 12 without qualifications and started work in a local factory which produced vacuum cleaners, where his work included machining clamping stays, earning him the nickname "Clamping Stay King". His next job was with local businessman Arthur Sykes, as a car salesman (with duties including re-possessing cars from people who had failed to make the necessary payments) before setting up his own taxi business and acquiring a Ford cars sub-agency and naming it Whitehouse Motors. When the

second World War 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 opposi ...

broke out, the motor business folded, but by then King had diversified into more general engineering work and so prospered from defence contracts and making parts for aircraft. He benefited hugely from War Ministry contracts and was able to use rare American machine tools that he acquired under the Lend Lease programme. After the war King, moved to Canada for a time, before returning to England and building a factory on wasteland in Ferrybridge,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

to establish Ferrybridge Industries. After renaming it the

Pollard Ball and Roller Bearing Company Pollard Ball and Roller Bearing Company with its headquarters at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eas ...

and producing millions of ball bearings per year, it grew to become a major operation spanning several continents (the third-largest ball-bearing business in the UK). After being forced to merge the business with another manufacturer,

Ransome & Marles Ransome & Marles Bearing Company Limited was the owner of a business making ball and roller bearings founded during the First World War to make bearings for aircraft and other engines. Before the war most bearings had been imported and most of th ...

, as part of a government reorganisation of the ball bearing business, King sold it for £10m in 1968, netting some £3m personally. He became Chairman of

Dennis Specialist Vehicles Dennis Specialist Vehicles was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford, building buses, fire engines, lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made to order to the customer's require ...

in 1970, and

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

in 1972. Babcock was acquired by FKI Electricals for £415 million in August 1987. King, Babcock chairman since 1972, became chairman of the new combined company, called FKI Babcock. He was made

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

in the 1979 New Year Honours, and appointed Chairman of the

National Enterprise Board The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a United Kingdom government body. It was set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, to support the government's interventionist approach to industry. In 1981 the Conservative government of Ma ...

in 1980 and, famously, taking over as head of

(BA).

British Airways

Dubbed "Mrs. Thatcher's favourite businessman" he was chosen to prepare the loss-making nationalised flag carrier for privatisation. King joined British Airways in 1981 when the airline was losing in excess of £140m a year. By 1989, the airline was making a pre-tax profit of £268m. Some of King's major changes at the airline included removing 22,000 staff members, hiring Colin Marshall as CEO in 1983, removing older aircraft from the fleet, purchasing more modern and efficient airliners, and axing unprofitable routes. Within two years King had replaced over half of the BA board with his own appointees. When BA was privatised in 1987, the initial share offering was 11 times oversubscribed. His compensation as chairman rose from about £250,000 in 1988 to £669,350 (including a £220,000 bonus) in 1991. King was created a life peer as Baron King of Wartnaby, in the

County of Leicester Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

shire on 15 July 1983. Lord King recognised the importance of

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

to British Airways. In its early years of service with BA, Concorde lost the carrier money and attracted criticism from the press as a white elephant. BA used Concorde to win business customers from transatlantic competitors by guaranteeing a certain number of Concorde upgrades in return for corporate accounts with the airline.

Virgin Atlantic and the "Dirty Tricks" Scandal

Around the same time, British Airways was witnessing the emergence of rival; Richard Branson's

which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984, and was emerging as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes. Following a highly publicised mercy mission to Iraq to fly home hostages who had been held by

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

in 1991, King is reported to have told Marshall and his PA Director

David Burnside David Wilson Boyd Burnside (born 24 August 1951) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 2001 to 2005. Burnside was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for ...

to "do something about Branson". This began the campaign of "dirty tricks", for which Branson sued King and BA for libel in 1992. King countersued Branson with the case scheduled for trial in 1993. However, it was settled out of court, with BA paying damages to Branson of £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline; further, BA paid legal fees of up to £3 million.

Later career

King stepped down from his BA leadership role in 1993, but remained BA president emeritus. His interests included directorships at the '' Daily Telegraph'', '' Spectator'', headhunting company Norman Broadbent, and engineering firm

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

Marriage and children

King was married twice; first to Lorna Sykes (daughter of his first boss, Arthur Sykes, and sister-in-law of

John Poulson John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson (14 April 1910 – 31 January 1993) was a British architectural designer and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced ...

) in 1941. The couple remained married until her death from cancer in 1969. King remarried in 1970 to Isabel Cynthia Monckton, daughter of the 8th

Viscount Galway Viscount Galway is a title that has been created once in the Peerage of England and thrice in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1628 in favour of Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde. He was made Earl ...

Personal life

King held the rank of MFH (Master of Foxhounds) with the Belvoir and Badsworth hunts and was also Chairman of the Lord King XI cricket team. He and wife Lorna both learned to fly and would use an aircraft to tour the UK. Lord King kept a flat in London for many years, in

Eaton Square Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgra ...

, and during his time running British Airways he lived there during the week. At weekends, he travelled north to his country estate, Friars Well Estate, in Wartnaby near

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

in the county of Leicestershire. He also had a house in Scotland, close to the River Naver.

Arms

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited:Ups and downs of Iron Lady's favourites

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, John Baron King of Wartnaby 1917 births 2005 deaths British Airways people British airline chief executives British people of Irish descent Conservative Party (UK) life peers 20th-century British farmers Knights Bachelor Masters of foxhounds in England People from Brentford People from the Borough of Waverley People from the Borough of Melton