George Harriman

This article is about the British businessman. For the American cartoonist, see George Herriman.
Sir George Harriman
Born George William Harriman
(1908-03-03)3 March 1908
Coventry, England
Died 29 May 1973(1973-05-29) (aged 65)
Occupation Rugby football player
Auto-industry chief (BMC)
Spouse(s) May Victoria Cooper/Harriman

George William Harriman (3 March 1908 – 29 May 1973[1] ) OBE (1943), CBE (1951) was a leading figure in the British motor industry in the 1960s.

Life

George Harriman was born in Coventry. His father, also called George Harriman, was employed as a "Motor Machinist".[2]

He began his career in 1923 as an apprentice at the Hotchkiss works of Morris Motors Limited.[1] He was promoted repeatedly, becoming assistant works superindendent with Morris in 1938.[1] Two years later he switched to Austin in 1940, and by 1945 had become a director of that company.[1] There followed a succession of promotions through the management of BMC,[1] a car manufacturing conglomerate created from the merger in 1952 of the Morris and Austin businesses.

In the meantime, he had married May Victoria Cooper in 1939.[3] Three years later his sister married her brother.[4]

He was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the British Motor Corporation[5] in 1961, having in principal taken over many of the responsibilities involved some years earlier from Leonard Lord.[1]

In addition to his business career, he was a noted rugby football player, captaining the Coventry and Warwickshire teams in the 1930s, and playing briefly for the England team in 1933.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "World Wide: Sir George Harriman CBE". Autocar. Vol. 138 (nbr 4019). 7 June 1973. p. 3.
  2. ↑ G. T. Bloomfield (September 2004). "Harriman, Sir George William (1908-1973), motor vehicle manufacturer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. ISBN 9780198614128. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Basil Cardew (8 August 1963). "No wonder George Harriman smiles today". Honest John Classics, Shaftesbury, reproduced from Daily Express (1963),. Retrieved 16 March 2015.


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