Leslie Kenneth O'Brien, Baron O'Brien of Lothbury (8 February 1908 – 24 November 1995) was

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent choosing and mentoring a successor. The governor ...

. After attending Wandsworth Grammar School in London, he joined the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

in 1927 and rose through the ranks, becoming chief cashier in 1955, deputy governor in 1966, before serving as governor from 1966 until 1973. As governor, O'Brien presided over the

devaluation In macroeconomics and modern monetary policy, a devaluation is an official lowering of the value of a country's currency within a fixed exchange-rate system, in which a monetary authority formally sets a lower exchange rate of the national curre ...

of the pound in 1967. He became a Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1967 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1970. Following his retirement as governor in 1973 he was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baron O'Brien of Lothbury, of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. He married firstly Isabelle Pickett (1908–1987) in 1932, and secondly Marjorie Taylor (born 1923) in 1989. He died in

Tandridge, Surrey Tandridge is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District, in the county of Surrey, England. Its nucleus is on a rise of the Greensand Ridge between Oxted and Godstone. It includes, towards its middle one named sub-locality (hamlet), ...

, in 1995.

Arms

Footnotes

References

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External links

Obituary: Lord O'Brien of Lothbury
from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien Of Lothbury, Leslie Obrien, Baron 1908 births 1995 deaths Crossbench life peers Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Governors of the Bank of England Deputy governors of the Bank of England Chief cashiers of the Bank of England 20th-century English businesspeople Life peers created by Elizabeth II Artists' Rifles soldiers