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Hugh Greene
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG OBE (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British television executive and journalist. He was director-general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969.
After working for newspapers in the 1930s, Greene spent most of his later career with the BBC, rising through the managerial ranks of overseas broadcasting and then news for the main domestic channels. He encountered opposition from some politicians and activists opposed to his modernising agenda, but under his leadership the BBC was recognised to be outperforming its commercial rival, ITV, and was awarded a second television channel (BBC 2) by the British government and authorised to introduce colour television to Britain.
After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother, the novelist Graham Greene, and made television programmes both for the BBC and ITV.
Greene was born on 15 November 1910 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the youngest of four sons and the fifth of the six children of Charles Henry Greene, headmaster of Berkhamsted School, and his wife (and cousin), Marion Raymond, the daughter of the Rev Carleton Greene, vicar of Great Barford in Bedfordshire, with his mother being a cousin of the Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Among the couple's other children were Graham Greene, the novelist, and Raymond Greene, a Doctor of Medicine and a mountaineer. Greene was educated at Berkhamsted School and at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a second class in classical moderations (1931) and English (1933).
Before his undergraduate years at Merton, Greene had spent some time in Germany and, after graduating, he returned there, beginning his career as a journalist. He worked in Munich for two British publications, the Daily Herald and the New Statesman, and in 1934 he joined the Berlin office of The Daily Telegraph, becoming its chief correspondent in 1938. The writer of his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, Colin Shaw, comments that Greene's direct witnessing of the Nazis deeply influenced him for the rest of his life, "teaching him to hate intolerance and the degradation of character to which the loss of freedom led". He was expelled from Germany in May 1939 in reprisal for the expulsion from London of a journalist and Nazi agent, Rudolf Rösel.
The Daily Telegraph sent Greene to Warsaw but his time there was brief. In September 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and he was forced to leave. As the war spread in Europe he reported from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France, returning to Britain in June 1940, narrowly escaping the German army's arrival in Paris. After a few months in the Royal Air Force as a pilot officer in intelligence, he was released to join the BBC German Service, becoming its news editor. Throughout the war, the BBC remained committed to impartial and accurate reporting to enemy-occupied territories. In 1940, Greene was one of the first to undergo security clearance vetting by MI5 while working at the BBC, for MI5 suspected him to be a communist.
At the end of the war the British government asked Greene to return to Germany as controller of broadcasting in the British-occupied zone. He established a peacetime radio service, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, served as its first director-general and gave it a charter on the lines of the BBC. In 1948, the station was handed over to the German authorities and Greene returned to England. He was appointed head of the BBC's eastern European service in 1949, just before the Russians began to jam its broadcasts. In 1950, he was again seconded for government service, this time as head of emergency information services for the Federation of Malaya, helping to combat the efforts of communist insurgents. Among his assistants was the future prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, who became a close friend.
On his return to London, Greene resumed his work at the BBC. First, in 1952, as assistant controller of overseas services, and then, in 1955, as controller. In 1956, Sir Norman Bottomley, director of administration and deputy to the director-general, Sir Ian Jacob, retired. Greene was appointed to succeed him; Shaw comments that this temporarily distanced him from any direct involvement with programmes, but clearly identified him as the potential successor to Jacob, who was due to retire in 1959.
Hugh Greene
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG OBE (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British television executive and journalist. He was director-general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969.
After working for newspapers in the 1930s, Greene spent most of his later career with the BBC, rising through the managerial ranks of overseas broadcasting and then news for the main domestic channels. He encountered opposition from some politicians and activists opposed to his modernising agenda, but under his leadership the BBC was recognised to be outperforming its commercial rival, ITV, and was awarded a second television channel (BBC 2) by the British government and authorised to introduce colour television to Britain.
After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother, the novelist Graham Greene, and made television programmes both for the BBC and ITV.
Greene was born on 15 November 1910 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the youngest of four sons and the fifth of the six children of Charles Henry Greene, headmaster of Berkhamsted School, and his wife (and cousin), Marion Raymond, the daughter of the Rev Carleton Greene, vicar of Great Barford in Bedfordshire, with his mother being a cousin of the Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Among the couple's other children were Graham Greene, the novelist, and Raymond Greene, a Doctor of Medicine and a mountaineer. Greene was educated at Berkhamsted School and at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a second class in classical moderations (1931) and English (1933).
Before his undergraduate years at Merton, Greene had spent some time in Germany and, after graduating, he returned there, beginning his career as a journalist. He worked in Munich for two British publications, the Daily Herald and the New Statesman, and in 1934 he joined the Berlin office of The Daily Telegraph, becoming its chief correspondent in 1938. The writer of his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, Colin Shaw, comments that Greene's direct witnessing of the Nazis deeply influenced him for the rest of his life, "teaching him to hate intolerance and the degradation of character to which the loss of freedom led". He was expelled from Germany in May 1939 in reprisal for the expulsion from London of a journalist and Nazi agent, Rudolf Rösel.
The Daily Telegraph sent Greene to Warsaw but his time there was brief. In September 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and he was forced to leave. As the war spread in Europe he reported from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France, returning to Britain in June 1940, narrowly escaping the German army's arrival in Paris. After a few months in the Royal Air Force as a pilot officer in intelligence, he was released to join the BBC German Service, becoming its news editor. Throughout the war, the BBC remained committed to impartial and accurate reporting to enemy-occupied territories. In 1940, Greene was one of the first to undergo security clearance vetting by MI5 while working at the BBC, for MI5 suspected him to be a communist.
At the end of the war the British government asked Greene to return to Germany as controller of broadcasting in the British-occupied zone. He established a peacetime radio service, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, served as its first director-general and gave it a charter on the lines of the BBC. In 1948, the station was handed over to the German authorities and Greene returned to England. He was appointed head of the BBC's eastern European service in 1949, just before the Russians began to jam its broadcasts. In 1950, he was again seconded for government service, this time as head of emergency information services for the Federation of Malaya, helping to combat the efforts of communist insurgents. Among his assistants was the future prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, who became a close friend.
On his return to London, Greene resumed his work at the BBC. First, in 1952, as assistant controller of overseas services, and then, in 1955, as controller. In 1956, Sir Norman Bottomley, director of administration and deputy to the director-general, Sir Ian Jacob, retired. Greene was appointed to succeed him; Shaw comments that this temporarily distanced him from any direct involvement with programmes, but clearly identified him as the potential successor to Jacob, who was due to retire in 1959.