Frederick Godber, 1st Baron Godber

Frederick Godber, 1st Baron Godber (born November 6, 1888 in Dulwich , London , † April 10, 1976 ) was a British manager.

Life and activity

Godber was a son of Edward Godber and his wife Marion. Godber began his career as an office boy in Shell Chairman Henri Deterding's office on Biliter Street. In 1904 he became an employee of the subsidiary Asiatic Petroleum Company.

From 1922 to 1928 Godber was President of the Rhoxana Petroleum Corporation (Shell Petroleum Corp.) in St. Louis. In 1929 he moved to London, where he served from 1929 to 1946 as one of several mangaging directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. During those years he was a director with the management of Shell Union Oil Corporation. From 1937 to 1946 he was also chairman of the Shell Union Oil Corporation.

In 1946 he reached the high point of his career when he was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the Shell Transport and Trading Company , which he remained until 1961. At the same time he was chairman of Shell Petroleum Company Ltd. from 1946 to 1961.

Due to his leading position in British economic life, at the end of the 1930s, Godber was classified as an important target by the police forces of National Socialist Germany: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people whom the Nazi surveillance apparatus considered special dangerous or important, which is why, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht, they should be located and arrested by special SS units following the occupying forces.

During World War II, in addition to his duties at Shell, Godber was Chairman of the Overseas Supplies Committee of Petroleum Board and undertook various missions for the government.

From 1953 to 1968 Godber served as Chairman of Commonwealth Development Finance Co. Ltd. from 1953 to 1961 in addition to his work at Shell. In addition, he held numerous honorary positions, for example from 1958 as a trustee of the Churchill College Trust Fund in Cambridge.

In 1956 Godber was raised to hereditary nobility as Baron Godber, of Mayfield in the County of Sussex. In this rank he belonged to the House of Lords from 1956 to 1976 . Since he had no children, his title became extinct with his death. He was buried in St. Dunstan's Churchyard in Mayfield, Sussex.

family

Godber had been married to Violet Ethel Beatrice Lovesy since 1914, with whom he had two daughters.

literature

• Who was Who , 1971, p. 302.
• World Biography , 1948, 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Godber on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London)