Sir Nicholas Proctor Goodison (16 May 1934 – 6 July 2021) was a British businessman who was chairman of the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

from 1976 to 1986. He was an important supporter of the arts and the President of the

Furniture History Society The Furniture History Society (FHS), which was founded in 1964, is a registered charity in the United Kingdom Background The Furniture History Society is based in London, with close connections at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was founded by ...

(FHS).

Career

Goodison was born in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, the son of Edmund Harold Goodison and Eileen Mary Carrington Proctor. He was educated at Marlborough College and then

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, of which he was an honorary fellow. He was made a

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

1982 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1982 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

. He served as chairman of the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

from 1982 to 2002 and of the

National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

(now The Art Fund) from 1986 to 2002. He appeared as a castaway on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' on 1 March 1987.

Artistic legacy

The National Portrait Gallery, London holds two portraits of Goodison in its collection, a bust by

Ivor Roberts-Jones Ivor Roberts-Jones (2 November 1913 – 9 December 1996) was an English sculptor of Welsh heritage on both his parents' sides. He is best known for his sculpted heads of notable people such as Yehudi Menuhin and George Thomas, Viscount Tonypandy ...

and a photograph by Lucy Anne Dickens. His portrait in oil, by Tom Phillips, is in the Stock Exchange's collection. A preparatory sketch made in oil on panel in 2006 was acquired from the artist by the Art Fund and is in the

Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the his ...

Personal life

Sir Nicholas married Judith Abel Smith (b. 21 January 1939) on 18 June, 1960: they had a son, Adam, and two daughters, Katharine and Rachel. He died on 6 July 2021, at the age of 87.

References

British businesspeople Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor 1934 births 2021 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge People from Watford Honorary Fellows of the British Academy {{UK-business-bio-stub