1873-1974

Sir Harry Brittain, who founded the Empire (now Commonwealth) Press Union in 1909 and celebrated his hundredth birthday on Christmas Eve 1973, was once described as the most versatile man in the Empire.

Educated at Repton and Worcester College, Oxford, (M.A.: Honours in Law) he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple In 1897, practised successfully for one week and then retired from the Law.

After a business training, he entered journalism and in time became a director of numerous daily and weekly newspapers daily and weekly newspapers, including the Illustrated London News.

In 1909 he successfully organised the First Imperial Press Conference. After the Conference, he founded the Empire Press Union and lived to see his brilliant concept grow into an organisation, which includes in its membership over 1,500 newspapers and news agencies throughout the Commonwealth. Sir Harry was an Honorary Life Member of the CPU, attended many of its Quinquennial Conferences, regularly attended all its Council Meetings and Conferences, and in 1959 personally inaugurated its 50th (Golden Jubilee) Annual Conference.

	Lord Astor of Hever presenting Sir Harry Brittain with the Astor Award in 1973

In February 1973 the Council announced that Sir Harry had been selected for the Astor Award. This award is CPU's most prestigious prize which is now presented annually to an individual for his/her services to press freedom.

Sir Harry was also an Honorary Member of the Foreign Press Association, the Association of American Correspondents in London and the Institute of Journalists. For many years, until the Anschluss, he was the only foreign Director of the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna.

He was founder of The Pilgrims in 1902 and for 17 years, first as honorary secretary and then as chairman, steered the Society through its early life. He resigned the chairmanship in 1919, because of his parliamentary duties, and became its senior vice-president, and the only Pilgrim Emeritus.

On January 25, 1972 he was the guest of honour at a dinner to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Society at which were read a message from The Queen and a personal letter to Sir Harry from President Nixon.

In addition to The Pilgrims, Sir Harry had many close associations with the United States. He was an Honorary Life Member of the American Club, and the "Society of Americans in London".

Sir Harry was a member of the original Committee of Sulgrave Manor Board, which was set up in 1914 to commemorate 100 years of peace between Great Britain and the United States. On his ninety-ninth birthday he received from the Board a present of a ceramic vase and flowers to mark their appreciation of his long services.

When the United States joined the Allies in 1917 and American officers started to come to London, an Officers' Club became a necessity and the task of forming one was readily undertaken by Sir Harry. Lord Leconfield make his magnificent house available and Sir Harry solved the furnishing problem by a stroke of genius. He realised that when the Canadian Pacific liners were converted to ships of war something must have happened to the furnishings and sure enough he found them stored in London. A word to his old friend, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, the CPR chairman, and the club was furnished from top to bottom. King George V, when accompanied by Queen Mary, inspecting the club, expressed surprise that the chairs were so much more sumptuous than he could get for Buckingham Palace. Needless to say the club was a tremendous success.

In May 1918 Sir Harry had the honour of conducting an important U.S. delegation, including a number of labour leaders, to the battlefields of France. The very successful tour included personal visits to senior commanders including General Pershing, the American Commander-in-Chief, who paid Sir Harry high praise for his part in organising the American Officers' Club in London.

Sir Harry represented Acton as a Unionist Member of Parliament from 1918-1929. Among his parliamentary achievements the successful sponsorship of a private Bill for the Protection of Birds - especially singing birds - (The Brittain Act, '25) perhaps gave him most pleasure.

Sir Harry Brittain and W E Scripps, President of the Detroit News prepare to try out the first commercial autogiro

He was awarded a KBE in 1918 for services in the First World War, and a CMG in 1924. He was also honoured by several continental countries for his international services. He visited 90 countries, crossed the Atlantic by sea more than 70 times and had been entertained in every State of the U.S.A.

At one hundred he retained all his wit, charm and youthful figure. In a life which covered six reigns, he never forgot an incident. He wrote three books of reminiscences without ever keeping a diary. He was the author of many publications including "From Verdun to the Somme", which went through five editions in six days.

A raconteur par excellence, Sir Harry liked to recall incidents of his early life. How he arrived at Grindewald Station in 1897 with a pair of skis to be asked by the stationmaster, " What are those long planks for?" How he travelled in his first motorcar in 1896, with the Hon. Charles Rolls, of Rolls Royce fame, down Piccadilly, and broke down opposite the Ritz Hotel. How in 1906 he flew over London in a balloon, again with Charles Rolls, chased by his anxious wife in a car driven by Lord Brabazon, the doyen of car drivers and English aviator number one. How he took part in the inaugural flights of the Airship R.38 and R.100.

Sir Harry had a fine sporting record: Captain of College teams at Oxford, football and tennis, and for many a long year a keen golfer and a first-class shot.

Perhaps the secret of his apparently eternal youth was the contact, which he maintained with younger generations and young people. He was for 28 years Chairman of the Schoolboys Exhibition at Olympia.

Sir Harry was married twice; first in 1905 to Alida Luisa DBE, daughter of Sir Robert Harvey, by whom he had one son and one daughter, and who died in 1943. After being a widower for 18 years, he married in 1961 Muriel Leslie, daughter of the late H. Leslie Dixon.

Sir Harry had a clear and powerful voice and was the author of many speeches and broadcasts. Lord (then Sir John) Reith once reported to him that in an American Gallup poll on pleasing voices through the air, he had been voted first in the broadcasters' list of "English speaking foreigners", and in the list of all " American and other Citizens", a poll which, incidentally, was headed by the then President of the United States.

Perhaps Sir Harry's contribution to Britain can be best summarised in his own words -

"In a long life I have been fortunate in counting as very dear and close friends men of all parties and with a wide knowledge of people in all five continents, I do not know any land where political differences of opinion have less effect on personal friendships than they have in our country."

When Sir Harry celebrated his 100th birthday he received many messages of congratulations including one from The Queen and another from the Prime Minister. His long and distinguished life ebbed peacefully during he the early days of July 1974 and on 9th July he died in London.

The Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Lord Astor, said of Sir Harry soon after his death in 1974:

"Well, he was the most fantastic example of enthusiasm and vitality and vigour. I don't think I have ever met anyone who had the enthusiasm that he had and the encouragement that he gave to young people - it didn't matter what anyone was doing or what their particular interests were, he was always full of tremendous enthusiasm which was completely infectious."