The Federation of British Industries (FBI) was an
employers' association
An employers' organization or employers' association is a collective organization of manufacturers, retailers, or other employers of wage labor. Employers' organizations seek to coordinate the behavior of their member companies in matters of mutual ...
in the United Kingdom.
Founded by the Midlands industrialist
Dudley Docker
Frank Dudley Docker (26 August 1862 – 8 July 1944) was an English businessman and financier. He also played first-class cricket for Derbyshire in 1881 and 1882.
Biography
Family background, early life and education
Docker was born at Paxt ...
in 1916 as the United British Industries' Association, but renamed later that same year, it was initially composed of 124 firms which each gave £1,000 for its foundation. The FBI never took part in labour relations but was progressively involved in
tariff reform
The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...
. It slowly gathered other regional and overseas organisations and was incorporated by
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
in 1923.
In 1965, it merged with the
British Employers' Confederation
The British Employers' Confederation (BEC), formerly the National Confederation of Employers' Organisations (NCEO), was an employers' association in the United Kingdom.
It had its origins in the Employers' Advisory Council established in 1917 to ...
and the
National Association of British Manufacturers to form the
Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...
. It was by far the biggest organisation of the three, composed of about 9,000 individual firms and 272 trade associations by 1964.
Presidents included:
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Sir Vincent Caillard (1919)
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Sir Peter Rylands (1919–1921)
*
Oliver Carleton Armstrong (1921–1922)
*
Sir Eric Geddes
Sir Eric Campbell Geddes (26 September 1875 – 22 June 1937) was a British businessman and Conservative politician. With a background in railways, he served as head of Military Transportation on the Western Front, with the rank of major-ge ...
(1923–1925)
*
Vernon Willey, 2nd Baron Barnby
Francis Vernon Willey, 2nd Baron Barnby, CMG, CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public s ...
(1925-1926)
*
Sir Max Muspratt (1926–1927)
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Lord Gainford (1927–1928)
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Lord Ebbisham (1928–1929)
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Lennox B. Lee (1929–1930)
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Sir James Lithgow
Sir James Lithgow, 1st Baronet, (27 January 1883 – 23 February 1952) was a Scottish industrialist who played a major role in restructuring the British shipbuilding and steelmaking industries in the 1930s in addition to playing an important rol ...
(1930–1932)
*
Sir George Beharrell (1932–1933)
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Sir George Macdonogh (1933–1934)
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Lord Herbert Scott
Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom), Lieutenant Colonel Lord Herbert Andrew Montagu Douglas Scott, (30 November 1872 – 17 June 1944) was the fifth child born to William Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch, William Henry Walter Montag ...
(1934–1935)
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Sir Francis Joseph (1935–1936)
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Lord Hirst (1936–1937)
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Peter Bennett (1938–1940)
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Lord Dudley Gordon, 3rd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1940-1943)
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Sir George Nelson (1943–1944)
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Sir Clive Baillieu (1945–1947)
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Sir Frederick Bain (1947–1949)
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Sir Robert Sinclair (1949–1951)
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Sir Archibald Forbes (1951–1953)
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Sir Harry Pilkington (1953–1955)
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Sir Graham Hayman (1955–1957)
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Sir Hugh Beaver
Sir Hugh Eyre Campbell Beaver, KBE (4 May 1890 – 16 January 1967) was an English-South African civil engineer, industrialist, and founder of the ''Guinness World Records'' (then known as Guinness Book of Records).
Biography
Beaver spe ...
(1957–1959)
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Sir William McFadzean (1959–1961)
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Sir Cyril Harrison (1961–1963)
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Sir Peter Runge (1963–1965).
Directors (later retitled director-general) included:
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Sir Roland Nugent from 1916 to 1917 and 1919 to 1932
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Sir Guy Locock from 1932 to 1945
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Sir Norman Kipping from 1946 to 1965
References
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External links
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Catalogue of the FBI archives held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...
*
Business organisations based in the United Kingdom
1916 establishments in the United Kingdom
Federations
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