John Reith

Sir John Charles Walsham Reith (born July 20, 1889 – June 16, 1971). Scottish broadcasting executive, the first general manager and later director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1922 to 1938.

Life before BBC. John Reith, the youngest son of Reverend Dr. George Reith's (a minister of the Free Church of Scotland) seven children, was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland. Reith's parents met in 1868 and got married in 1970. During their marriage, they had six children, two girls and four boys, and almost ten years later John Reith was born. He first went to a girls' school nearby, where he won a prize for his singing, as there were such classes as sewing and singing in the school. Later, in 1986 Reith moved to Glasgow Academy, where he showed his personality: he was an intelligent young man, who went through all the classes without any efforts, but who, however, was impatient and intolerant. In 1904 Reith became a student in a boarding school in Norfolk.