|
Sir George Barnes was born on 13 September 1904 in Byfleet, the son of the lieutenant-governor of Burma. He went to the Royal Navy College, Osbourne and then BRNC Dartmouth, but was rejected by the Royal Navy because of poor eyesight; He later attended King's College, Cambridge University between 1922 and 1927, reading history. He then taught at Dartmouth until 1930. After a spell at the CUP, he joined the BBC in 1935 as a Producer in the Talks Department. In 1946 he was promoted to be the first ever Controller of the new BBC Radio Station, the Third Programme until in 1950 he became a Director of BBC TV. He was knighted for overseeing the Coronation broadcast in 1953. He retired from broadcasting in 1956 becoming Principal of the University College of North Staffordshire, now Keele University. He died at Keele on 22 September 1960. |