Bill Fiske, Baron Fiske

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William Geoffrey "Bill" Fiske, Baron Fiske Kt OBE (born July 3, 1905 , † January 13, 1975 ) was a British politician . He was the first chairman of the Greater London Council (GLC) and oversaw the decimalization of the pound sterling as president of the Decimal Currency Board .

Professional and political career

Bill Fiske came from a middle-class family in which politics played a large role. He attended Berkhamsted Collegiate School and after graduating worked for the Bank of England . After twelve years of working there, he took the opportunity in 1935 to leave the bank with a generous pension and to work as managing director.

When the Second World War broke out , Fiske was drafted into the administration. In 1945 he ran unsuccessfully for the Labor Party in the constituency of South Hampstead . The following year he was elected to the London County Council (LLC). He became increasingly enthusiastic about working at the local level, so he postponed his previous ambitions to become a member of parliament. He became Parliamentary Secretary of the Labor Group. As he was not popular with some of his colleagues, after the dissolution of the LLC he became a candidate for the GLC, which was considered insignificant. In the 1964 elections, he campaigned for the expansion of social housing . Fiske won his constituency and Labor the entire election. After Labor was able to win the general election in the same year , Fiske was beaten to Knight Bachelor in 1965 .

Under Fiske's leadership, there were intermittent friction with the borough , who refused to accept the GLC trying to enforce measures against their will. The growing volume of traffic in the city turned out to be a particular problem. Fiske proposed higher parking fees for Inner London with parking permits for residents of the affected neighborhoods. He was also involved in the arts, advocating the construction of the Royal National Theater and himself became a member of the board of directors. However, during his tenure he did not succeed in keeping the apartment rent as low as he had wished. Labor suffered a crushing defeat in the 1967 elections and Fiske lost his constituency. He was promoted to life peer with the title Baron Fiske , of Brent in Greater London .

The decimalization of the pound

The then Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan appointed Fiske chairman of the Decimal Currency Board in 1966 . He was given the task of decimalizing the pound, which at the time was divided into 20 shillings , each shilling being twelve pence . From now on, 100 new pence should be equal to one pound.

Fiske led an ambitious campaign over the next five years leading up to the change to prepare citizens and businesses for the consequences of decimalization. Information films were made and shown on television and brochures were distributed. The date for the change, known as Decimal day or D day , was set to February 15, 1971. Despite some predictions that the switch would end as a disaster, D day went smoothly. The board was dissolved in 1971 and Fiske retired. His topics during his time in the House of Lords were helping tenants in social housing, government control of real estate agents, and better care for people with diabetes .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Knights and Dames: DOO – FOW at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
  2. ↑ Cracroft's Peerage: Life Peerages - F. Retrieved November 8, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Fiske, Bill, Baron Fiske
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fiske, William Geoffrey, Baron Fiske (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1905
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1975