Oliver John Whitley (1912 – 2005), son of J. H. Whitley, was a broadcasting administrator who worked for most of his life for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

.The Independent, 24 March 2005: Obituary of Oliver Whitley
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Early life and education

Born 12 February 1912 in Halifax,

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

, the third child and second son of

John Henry Whitley John Henry Whitley (8 February 1866 – 3 February 1935), often known as J. H. Whitley, was a British politician and Georgist. He was the final Liberal to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, a role he held from 1921 to 1928. Family an ...

and his wife Margherita. Like his father, Oliver was a boarder i
Wiseman's House

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

where he was resident between 1925 and 1930. He read history and law at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

and qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

.Old Cliftonians Magazine 2005: Obituary of Oliver J. Whitley
/ref> He married Elspeth Catherine Forrester-Paton in May 1939; the couple had four sons and one daughter.
/ref>

Career

Oliver joined the BBC in 1935 and, at the outbreak of

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 opposin ...

moved to the Monitoring Service at Wood Norton monitoring

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

broadcasts. He resigned in 1941 following a dispute over the proposal to move the unit to

Caversham Park Caversham Park is a Victorian-era stately home with parkland in the suburb of Caversham on the outskirts of Reading, England. Historically located in Oxfordshire, it became part of Berkshire with boundary changes in 1911. Caversham Park was ...

. He enlisted with the RVNR, serving in Europe including the

Dieppe raid Operation Jubilee or the Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) was an Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in northern France, during the Second World War. Over 6,050 infantry, predominantly Canadian, supported by a regiment o ...

and the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

and the Far East in the

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

landings and liberation of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. On demobilisation in 1946, he rejoined and remained with the BBC until his retirement. He had a long and influential career, much of which was with the External ServicesBBC World Service FAQ
/ref>

Later life

He retired in 1972, with his wife, to

Oban Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, th ...

. He died on 22 March 2005 in

Benderloch Benderloch ( gd, Meadarloch, ) is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The name is derived from ''Beinn eadar dà loch'', meaning "mountain between two lochs". Benderloch lies on the A828 road in the coastal parish of Ardchattan, Argyll, Sc ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, at the age of 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitley, Oliver John 1912 births People from Halifax, West Yorkshire People educated at Clifton College 2005 deaths