Sir Stephen George Tallents (20 October 1884 – 11 September 1958) was a British civil servant and public relations expert.

Biography

Born in London, Tallents was educated at

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

and Balliol. He began his career as a civil servant at the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

in 1909 before being transferred to assist

William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 194 ...

and Hubert Llewellyn Smith in establishing labour exchanges. He was commissioned in August 1914 and served as an officer in the

Irish Guards ("Who Shall Separate s") , colors = , identification_symbol_2 Saffron (pipes), identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = Tactical Recognition F ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

until severely wounded at Festubert. He then worked at the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...

, transferring in 1916 to the Ministry of Food. In 1918 he became chief delegate for the Supply of Relief to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. In February 1919 he was appointed British Commissioner for the Baltic Provinces during the British intervention in that region and helped draw up the treaty that established

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and Lithuania. He adjudicated on the line of the border between Estonia and Latvia, which included dividing the town of Valga/

Valka Valka (; german: Walk) is a town and municipality in northern Latvia, on the border with Estonia along both banks of the river Pedele. Valka and the Estonian town Valga are twins, separated by the Estonian/Latvian border but using the slogan "O ...

. He was secretary to the last

Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

, Lord FitzAlan and was then Imperial Secretary for Northern Ireland, 1922 to 1926. He is best known for his work as the secretary of the

Empire Marketing Board The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote intra-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'. It was established as a substitute for tariff reform and protectionist legislation and ...

(EMB) between 1926 and 1933. There he employed the British

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

-maker

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fl ...

and commissioned artists including:

Clive Gardiner Clive Gardiner (3 April 1891–15 May 1960) was a British designer, illustrator, printmaker, painter and teacher. An important artist in his own right, Graham Sutherland said of him: 'Everything worthwhile I learnt, I learnt from him.' Early l ...

E. McKnight Kauffer Edward McKnight Kauffer (14 December 1890 – 22 October 1954) was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator a ...

, and Frank Newbould to produce a series of large posters, promoting British and Empire produce. Following the demise of the EMB in 1933 Tallents moved to the GPO, transferring the EMB's film unit with him which led to the

GPO Film Unit The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films ...

's production of classic documentaries such as '' Night Mail''. Tallents went on to work for the BBC as its first Controller of Public Relations and Deputy Director General under Lord Reith. In

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

his experience was employed at the Ministry of Information. In 1948 he became founder President of the Institute of Public Relations. Stephen Tallents was awarded the CB in 1918, the CBE in 1920, made Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in hono ...

in 1929, and knighted in 1932 as Knight Commander of the

.''London Gazette'' Issue 33785 published on 29 December 1931. Page 5 Tallents was a guest on ''

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 (us ...

'' on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

on 11 October 1943. He gave

St John's Jerusalem St John's Jerusalem or Sutton-at-Hone Preceptory is a National Trust property at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, England which includes the 13th century chapel of the Knights Hospitaller and a garden moated by the River Darent. The chapel and garden are op ...

at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1943.

References

Bibliography

*Sir Stephen Tallents, ''Man and Boy'' by Faber & Faber, (1943) *Scott Anthony, ''Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain: Stephen Tallents and the Birth of a Progressive Media Profession''. Manchester University Press (2013)

External links

Link to Sir Stephen Tallents' Papers at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies together with biographical notes
*

Stephen Constantine Stephen Constantine (born 16 October 1962) is an English professional football coach and former player who is head coach of Indian Super League club East Bengal. Early and personal life Constantine was born on 16 October 1962 in London. He is ...

‘Tallents, Sir Stephen George (1884–1958)’
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, retrieved 4 June 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tallents, Stephen 1884 births 1958 deaths People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford BBC people Irish Guards officers British Army personnel of World War I Public relations theorists British public relations people Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Commanders of the Order of the British Empire