Patrick Bishop

Sir (Frank) Patrick Bishop, MBE (7 March 1900 – 5 October 1972) was a British advertising copywriter, barrister, businessman, and Conservative Party politician.

Bishop was born in Tottenham and went to Tottenham Grammar School. At the age of 17 he became an assistant copywriter in the advertising department of The Times, but soon left for war service in the Royal Flying Corps in France. On demobilisation in 1919, he rejoined The Times while studying law in his spare time at King's College London. He was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1924.

From 1927, Bishop was chairman of the Advertising Association's committee on patent medicine advertising standards. He also headed the association's investigation department until 1934. He kept up his work for The Times while working as a Barrister, using the combination of the two to write a definitive book on "Advertising and the Law" which was published in 1928. In the same year he was appointed Advertising Manager of The Times, a demanding post as the newspaper felt its reputation depended on the claims made in the adverts being scrupulously checked.

As Assistant Manager of The Times from 1937, he found himself responsible for making arrangements to continue the publication of the paper during the Second World War. During the Blitz he was often on the roof, putting out incendiary devices dropped by the Luftwaffe. He joined the Home Guard and became second in command of its 'press battalion', for which he was awarded the MBE in December 1944. He wrote further books about the ethics of advertising in the late 1940s.

Soon after the end of the war, Bishop left The Times to join Broadcast Relay, and he became a Director of Rediffusion. From 1947 he was also general manager of the Newsprint Supply Company. This was a company jointly set up by the newspaper industry to manage the supply of paper, then still in short supply due to rationing; the company was in an uneasy position between the government, who controlled rationing, and the newspapers, who were seeking to sell more copies and so increase their print run. He was at the company for ten years.

...
Wikipedia