Sir John Reith

Major the Right Honourable The Lord Reith KT GCVO GBE CB TD PC
1934 portrait by Howard Coster
1st Director-General of the BBC
In office 1927–1938
Monarch	George V Edward VIII George VI
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Frederick Ogilvie
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
Occupation	General Manager and Director-General of the BBC (1922–1938)

John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC (20 July 1889 – 16 June 1971) was a British broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922 he was employed by the BBC (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.

Born at Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Reith was the youngest, by ten years, of the seven children of the Reverend Dr George Reith, a Scottish Presbyterian minister. He was to carry strict Presbyterian religious convictions forward into his adult life. Reith was educated at The Glasgow Academy then at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. His father refused to support any further education and apprenticed him as an engineer at the North British Locomotive Company. Reith was also a part-time soldier in the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteers and later the 5th Scottish Rifles.