Sir William Dennis Pile (1 December 1919 – 26 January 1997) was an English

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Educated at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

, he served in the Army during the Second World War, reaching the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. After completing his degree, he entered the Ministry of Education in 1947, serving on the UK delegation to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

and then spending a year at the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

(1950–51) before returning to the Ministry, which became the Department for Education and Science (DES) in 1964. From 1966 to 1970, he spent short periods at the Ministry of Health and the Home Office, the later as deputy secretary from 1967. From 1970 to 1976, he was

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

to the DES. He was then chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue between 1976 and 1979. In retirement, he was a director of

Nationwide Building Society Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual financial institution, the seventh largest cooperative financial institution and the largest building society in the world with over 16 million members. Its headquarters are in Swindon, England. ...

and The Distillers Company.John A. Hudson
"Pile, Sir William Dennis"
''

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004). Retrieved 16 September 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pile, William 1919 births 1997 deaths English civil servants Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Members of the Order of the British Empire Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Education and Skills Chairmen of the Board of Inland Revenue Civil servants in the Home Office Civil servants in the Ministry of Health (United Kingdom) Civil servants in the Cabinet Office