Miles Thomas, Baron Thomas
William Miles Webster Thomas, Baron Thomas DFC (born March 2, 1897 in Cefn Mawr , Wrexham , Wales ; † February 8, 1980 ) was a British economic manager who became a life peer in the House of Lords in 1971 under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .
Life
Thomas, son of a landowner, went after visiting the Bromsgrove School at the beginning of the First World War, his military service and found as a member of an armored car - squadron use in East Africa . On his return he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and, after completing his pilot training, served with squadrons in Egypt , on the Mesopotamia Front , in Persia and southern Russia . He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his services in aerial combat and low-level flight missions .
After the end of the war he worked as an engineer and in 1924 joined the Morris Motor Company , founded by William Richard Morris as a manager and sales consultant , where he had been director and head of the sales department from 1927, before he was finally managing director between 1940 and 1947. In addition, Thomas, who was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree in 1943 and from then on bore the suffix "Sir", became chairman of the Cruiser Tank Production Group and a member of the advisory committee of the government of Prime Minister Winston Churchill .
In January 1949, Thomas was, was the since March 31, 1948 Deputy CEO, succeeding Sir Harold Hartley CEO of airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and led this company before it in 1956 after a dispute with the then Transport Minister Harold Watkinson resigned . In a debate in the House of Lords, George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk, questioned such a dispute. During his time as chairman of BOAC in 1954, the four- engine jet airliner De Havilland DH.106 Comet crashed several times .
After his resignation in 1956 he became chairman of the board of directors of the chemical company Monsanto Chemical Ltd. and was also temporarily a member of the board of directors of British Airways . He also served as chairman of the board of the mergers and acquisitions company Chesham Amalgamations, founded in 1962, and chairman of the National Savings Committee . In 1964 he published an autobiography entitled Out on a Wing: An Autobiography .
Most recently, Thomas was appointed a member of the House of Lords to the nobility by a letters patent dated January 29, 1971 under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Thomas , of Remenham in the Royal County of Berkshire .
Publications
- Out on a Wing: An Autobiography , 1964
Web links
- William Thomas at Hansard (English)
- Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
- Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
- Newspaper article about Miles Thomas, Baron Thomas in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Morris Cars - Sir Miles Thomas (British Pathe)
- ↑ Article . In: Flight 1948
- ↑ Sir Miles Thomas's New Post: Deputy BOAC Chairman . In: The Glasgow Herald, January 9, 1948
- ↑ Sir Miles Thomas to Take Over BOAC: BSAA Tudor IV Lost in Caribbean . In: Flight from January 27, 1949
- ↑ Sir Miles Thomas . In: Der Spiegel from October 14, 1953
- ^ Resignation of Sir Miles Thomas . In: Hansard of March 21, 1956
- ↑ The Story of Chesham Amalgamations (PDF; 22 kB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thomas, Miles Thomas, Baron |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thomas, William Miles Webster Thomas, Baron (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British manager |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cefn Mawr , Wrexham , Wales |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 8, 1980 |