Sir Basil Smallpeice

Sir Basil Smallpeice, (18 September 1906 – 12 July 1992) was an English accountant and businessman, who served as a director of several companies, including the state owned airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the shipping company Cunard and the mining based conglomerate Lonrho.

Smallpeice, as financial comptroller and later, managing director, was one of the board of BOAC who was instrumental in purchasing and introducing jet powered aircraft into passenger service. He was responsible for the purchase of the de Havilland Comet, the Boeing 707 and the Vickers VC10. His time at BOAC included the introduction of the Comet 1, the subsequent Comet disasters where metal fatigue caused the in-flight destruction of three aircraft, with a loss of 99 passengers and crew, the re-introduction of the Comet 4 and the inauguration of the first jet-powered transatlantic services in October 1958. He would later be instrumental in the purchase of the Boeing 707, which introduced the first by-pass turbofan engine, the Rolls-Royce Conway into passenger service. He left BOAC along with his chairman Matthew Slattery, over disagreements with the Government concerning financial support in return for purchasing the Vickers VC10.

He moved to Cunard as a director and then chairman, where he was responsible for radically altering the passenger and freight operations of the business; on the passenger side of the business, he cut massive losses by selling the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth liners, then oversaw the radical re-design of the replacement liner the Queen Elizabeth 2, which was under construction when he took up his position with Cunard. The changes he oversaw allowed the Queen Elizabeth 2 to become a profitable luxury liner for the company. His work on the freight size of the business included the containerisation of the business together with the amalgamation of smaller lines and the formation of joint ventures which would be needed to operate larger container ships. He was chairman of Cunard when the Atlantic Conveyor was ordered and launched as part of Cunard's contribution to the Atlantic Container Line joint-venture.

His final major business appointment was as a non-executive director of Lonhro, where soon after he took office, he uncovered illicit payments to Duncan Sandys and further impropriety undertaken by chief executive Tiny Rowland, who had committed company funds to projects without the agreement of the board and granted share options to other sympathetic board members. Smallpeice and seven fellow directors attempted to remove Rowlands from office on the grounds of his behaviour, but he managed to out-manoeuvre them by obtaining a temporary injunction preventing his removal. The Prime Minister Edward Heath considered Rowland's behaviour to be "the unacceptable face of capitalism" and despite support for Smallpeice and his fellow directors in the press and in the city, where they were dubbed "the straight eight", they all resigned at a subsequent extraordinary general meeting later in 1973.

Smallpeice also held a post as an administrative advisor to the household of Elizabeth II. He became well known and trusted by the Queen as a result of his work with BOAC organising flights and aircraft for the Royal family, including the flight which took Princess Elizabeth to Kenya at the end of January 1952 and returned her as Queen several days later.

Early life

Smallpeice was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 18 September 1906. His father was Herbert Charles Smallpeice and his mother was Georgina Ruth Smallpeice (née Rust). Herbert Smallpeice was a senior clerk with the London and River Plate Bank, a British bank which conducted business in South America. Basil contracted malaria whilst in South America and was returned to Britain.

He was privately schooled whilst in Britain, initially at Hurstpierpoint College, then at Shrewsbury School, before joining Bullimore and Co., an accountancy firm based in London and Norwich, as an articled clerk. Smallpeice qualified as an accountant in 1930, and undertook the University of London Bachelor of Commerce degree whilst training.

Business career

Smallpeice was initially employed by The Hoover Company from 1931 to 1937 as an accountant and assistant secretary, before moving to Royal Doulton as their chief accountant and secretary, where he stayed until 1948. He served as acting managing director during World War II when Royal Doulton's managing director, retired Royal Navy officer Basil Green, returned to active service. Royal Doulton was covered by an essential work order and Smallpeice's role considered a reserved occupation, restricting him from active military service, though he was permitted to serve with the Home Guard. Basil Green's short return during the Phoney War of 1939 allowed Smallpeice to take up a position with HM Treasury, working with the Organisation and Methods Division, but Green was again recalled to active service when Germany invaded the Low Countries, with Smallpeice returning to Doulton's.

He and like-minded accountants in the same position would spend much of their spare time during the war writing papers on accountancy, taxation and management, with one paper, entitled ''"The Future of Auditing"'' provoking a strong response amongst Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) members when it was published in their journal, '' The Accountant'' in 1941. This would lead to the formation of the Taxation and Financial Relations Committee at the ICAEW in 1942, and Smallpeice would be one of the first members to join that committee. He would join the board of the Office Management Association prior to that.

Smallpeice, with support from E. H. Carr who was then assistant editor of ''The Times,'' promoted the idea of employers deducting income tax from wages and passing it to Government directly rather than waiting for employees to do so at the end of the financial year. He introduced this idea to Paul Chambers, then on the board of the Inland Revenue. The idea, which became the PAYE system, would be tested in 1940–1941 and introduced permanently in 1944. The system vastly simplified and increased tax collection during the latter stages of World War II, when Britain was in desperate need of funds.

Smallpeice would, whilst working at Doulton's, involve himself further in the ICAEW, promoting rule changes which would allow chartered accountants working in industry to sit on the ICAEW council, and being eligible to be Fellows of the Institute. This would lead to him serving on the ICAEW council from 1948 to 1957.

British Transport Commission

Smallpeice left Doulton's in 1948 when it became clear he wouldn't be offered a board position with the company, and moved to join fellow accountant Reginald Wilson at the state owned British Transport Commission (BTC). Wilson, as comptroller, offered Smallpeice the role of Director of Costs and Statistics, but within two years, Smallpeice grew to realise that the business, with 600,000 staff, was effectively unmanageable without support from government and he began to assess his options elsewhere.

He spoke to Harold Howitt when he was thinking of leaving the BTC and was informed that Miles Thomas

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