Gerald Barry (journalist, 1898)

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Sir Gerald Reid Barry (born November 20, 1898 in Surbiton , † November 21, 1968 ) was a British journalist.

Life and activity

Barry was the son of a clergyman. After attending school, he studied at Marlborough College . During the First World War he was used as an aviator with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force from 1916 to 1918 .

In 1919, Barry joined the Daily Express as a journalist . In 1921 he switched to the Saturday Review as an assistant editor , and he took over the editorship in 1924. In 1930 he resigned from this post because he rejected an instruction from the board of directors of this newspaper to Lord Beaverbrook to support the United Empire Party journalistically. Instead, he became the editor of the Week-End Review . When the review was merged with New Statesman magazine in 1934 , he became a member of the board of directors.

In 1936 he succeeded Aylmer Vallance as editor of the News Chronicle newspaper . He remained in this post until 1947.

At the end of the 1930s, the National Socialist police authorities classified Barry as an important target due to his position as one of the leading personalities in the British press: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people belonging to the Nazi surveillance apparatus regarded as particularly dangerous or important, which is why they should be located and arrested by the occupying troops following special SS units with special priority in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht .

In 1948 Barry became Director General of the Festival of Britain , which he himself had inspired by a letter to Richard Stafford Cripps in the fall of 1945. In this position he was responsible for putting together and leading the organizing committee for this event. In the same year he was beaten to the Knight Bachelor .

Barry's estate is now in the London School of Economics Library (M 1377).

literature

  • Obituaries from the Times , p. l. e. a.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry on Barry on the special wanted list GB: (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London) .
personal data
SURNAME Barry, Gerald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barry, Sir Gerald Reid (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British journalist
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Surbiton
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1968