Cecil Graves

Captain Sir Cecil George Graves KCMG MC(4 March 1892 – 2 January 1957) was joint Director-General of the BBC with Robert W. Foot from 26 January 1942 to 6 September 1943.

Early life

The son of Charles L. Graves and Alice Grey, the eldest sister of Viscount Grey of Fallodon, [http://www.xreferplus.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=6155296 GRAVES, Captain Sir Cecil George] at Who's Who online at xreferplus.com (accessed 27 November 2007)] Graves (like his predecessor Reith) was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, ["I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School" by S.G.G. Benson and Martin Crossley Evans (James & James, London, 2002)] and then at Sandhurst.

Career

Graves was commissioned into the Royal Scots from Sandhurst in 1911. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France, from August 1914, and was one of the first to be taken as a prisoner of war, on 26 August 1914, spending the rest of the Great War of 1914-1918 in a German prison camp. After the war, he served at the War Office in the Intelligence Branch of the Imperial General Staff from 1919 to 1925, when he left the British Army. He joined the BBC as an administrator in 1926, was Assistant Director of Programmes from 1929 to 1932, then Empire Service Director, 1932-1935, Controller of Programmes, 1935-1938, Deputy Director-General, 1938-1942, and in 1942 succeeded Frederick Ogilvie (jointly with Robert Foot) as Director-General. Graves left the corporation in 1943, when Foot became sole Director-General.

Family

In 1921, Graves married Irene Helen Bagnell, a daughter of H. W. J. Bagnell, of the Indian Civil Service, and they had two sons.

Honours

*Military Cross
*Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1939
*Grand Officer of the Order of Orange Nassau, Netherlands----

References