Page 116 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022

Famous Friday
Vaughan Kent-Payne
MARMADUKE HUSSEY
The son of an Olym- pic athlete and colonial administrator, Marma- duke James Hussey was born in Surrey on 29th August 1923. Spending much of his early life in Uganda, he was shunted between various relatives
as his father was posted to Nigeria. Educated at Rugby School he went up to Trinity College Cambridge in 1942, but left after a year having volunteered to the Army. Commissioned from Sandhurst (Army No 278547) into the Grenadier Guards on 4th June 1943 join-
ant after the company was bought by Rupert Murdoch. Hussey was also chairman of GWR, a small radio station, his only broadcasting expe- rience when he was appointed as head of the BBC Board of Governors. It is still unclear why Margaret Thatcher approved the appointment, although it is known she was angry about what she saw as the Corporation’s anti-government reporting of events in Northern Ireland.
Hussey’s first act was to fire the Director Gen- eral, Alasdair Milne, and bring in the ruthless John Birt as Deputy DG. In 1991, having had his appointment extended by a further five years,
ing the 5th Battalion, part of 24th Guards Brigade. On 22nd Janu- ary 1944 the Battalion formed part of 1st Infantry Division dur- ing the joint Anglo/US landings at Anzio in Italy.
Hussey’s combat career was short and, leading his Platoon on an attack, five days after the landing, he was wounded in the hand, legs and back by a burst of machine gun fire.
he elevated Birt to Director General. Having saved the BBC from losing its licence fee as mooted by the Prime Minister, Hussey’s relationship with Birt became increasingly strained. In 1995 Birt informed Hussey at the last minute that he intended to broad- cast the Martin Bashir interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. The timing was designed to give the pro-Royal Family Hussey no time to formally object. As has since been proved, the interview was set up under false pretences and the Corporation has since compensated some of those
However, Hussey’s combat career
was short and, leading his Platoon
on an attack, five days after the
landing, he was wounded in the
hand, legs and back by a burst of
machine gun fire. Captured by the
Germans, a surgeon amputated
his right leg which had become infected and, after several more operations, he was repatri- ated in an exchange of prisoners with minimal chance of survival. The bullet lodged in his spine proved problematic and he spent six months in an orthopaedic hospital in Roehampton before returning to Oxford and completing his degree in 1949.
caught up in the web of deceit.
Hussey served his full time and retired in 1996. A somewhat Woosterish figure, he once said “I have always enjoyed being thought a fool. It gives you an immediate advantage over those around you.” His wife, Susan, was one of The Queen’s Ladies in Waiting, further cementing his image as an establishment man. A tall, powerful man, Hussey bore his disability stoically, refus- ing painkillers and taking a whisky if his wounds gave him trouble, and a second if the first did not work.
Joining the Daily Mail as a management trainee, he had worked his way up to Managing Director by 1967. Later he was Chief Executive of Times Newspapers, remaining as a full-time consult-
114 HISTORICAL