George Bishop (civil servant)
Sir George Sidney Bishop CB OBE (15 October 1913 – 9 April 1999) was a British civil servant and businessman.
Early life
George Bishop was born near Wigan in Lancashire.
Education
Bishop attended Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School and the London School of Economics to read Economics and Government under Harold Laski.
Career
Bishop's first job was for a Quaker organisation in South Wales which assisted the unemployed through subsistence production. On the outbreak of the second world war he moved to the Ministry of Food as a statistician, subsequently running its Emergency Services division.
After the war Bishop became a private secretary to ministers of food Ben Smith and John Strachey. Bishop was active in winding up the disastrous groundnut oil scheme. In 1959 he was promoted to Deputy Secretary, then the youngest such appointment ever.
In 1961 Bishop moved to the then sugar company Booker McConnell, becoming vice-chairman in 1970 and chairman in 1972. He was knighted in 1975 and retired in 1979.