John Reith, 1st Baron Reith

Major The Right Honourable The Lord Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC
Reith in 1934
1st Director-General of the BBC
In office 1 January 1927 – 30 June 1938
Monarchs	George V Edward VIII George VI
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Frederick Ogilvie
Minister of Information
In office 5 January 1940 – 12 May 1940
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	Hugh Macmillan
Succeeded by	Duff Cooper
Personal details
Born	John Charles Walsham Reith (1889-07-20)20 July 1889 Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland
Died	16 June 1971(1971-06-16) (aged 81) Edinburgh, Scotland
Resting place	Rothiemurchus chapel, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Spouse	Muriel Reith ​ (m. 1921)​
Children	2, including Marista
Occupation	Broadcasting Executive Engineer Politician Soldier

John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC (/ˈriːθ/; 20 July 1889 – 16 June 1971) was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he was employed by the BBC, then the British Broadcasting Company Ltd., as its general manager; in 1923 he became its managing director, and in 1927 he was employed as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation created under a royal charter. His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organisations around the world. An engineer by profession, and standing at 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall, he was a larger-than-life figure who was a pioneer in his field.^[1]

The BBC's Reith Lectures were instituted in his honour.