[BITList] Taking the strain

[John Feltham]

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Parker, Sir  Peter  (1924-2002), businessman, was born in Malo-les-Bains, near Dunkirk, France, on 30 August 1924, the third son of Tom Parker, a marine engineer born in Hull, and his wife, Dorothy Sydney, nee Mackinlay, a teacher. Both his brothers died during the Second World War. He spent half of his childhood in France, and the rest, from 1932, in Shanghai, where he was educated at the Shanghai public school. In 1937, with the Japanese invasion of China, the family was evacuated to Britain. Parker's father then worked for many years in Africa, but his mother settled with her children in Bedford, where Parker attended Bedford School. The Second World War then shaped his studies, for he won a special scholarship to the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Japanese. He was called up in 1943, serving first in the intelligence corps in India and Burma, then in the United States and Japan (1945-7), acquiring the rank of major.

On demobilization Parker was accepted at Lincoln College, Oxford, after an unconventional piece of college cold calling. He read history but, enjoying the special confidence of the post-war mature student, spent much of his time in acting, politics-he was chairman of the University Labour Club-and participating in numerous sports, where his charismatic personality and motivational skills were fully evident. He might have made a career as an actor, playing Hamlet in a Kenneth Tynan production, and King Lear in a West End production and subsequently on an American tour, which also starred Shirley Catlin (later Shirley Williams) as Cordelia. In 1950 he graduated with a second-class degree in history, and won a Commonwealth Fund fellowship to Cornell and Harvard. The following year he returned to Britain to contest Bedford (unsuccessfully) for the Labour Party. On 15 December 1951 he married Gillian Rowe-Dutton, medical doctor, and daughter of Sir Ernest Rowe-Dutton, civil servant. They had three sons and a daughter.

On marriage Parker abandoned his political ambitions and pursued a business career. After spending two years in personnel with Phillips Electrical, he undertook higher profile appointments as head of the overseas department of the Industrial Welfare Society (1953-4) and then secretary to the duke of Edinburgh's study conference on the human problems of industry (1954-6), for which he was appointed LVO in 1957. He joined the plantation and food group Booker Brothers McConnell in 1956, where he played a full part in implementing Bookers' successful diversification strategies. By the early 1970s he could lay claim to be a professional company director with a wide portfolio: he had been a director of Bookers (1960-70) and chairman of Bookers Engineering and Industrial Holdings Ltd (1966-70), and was chairman of the glass and plastic container manufacturer Rockware (1971-6) and director or chairman of a string of other companies including Associated British Maltsters (1971-3), the literary agents Curtis Brown (1971-6), Victoria Deep Water Terminal (1971-6), the merchant bankers Dawnay Day (1971-6), and the shipbrokers H. Clarksons (Holdings) (1975-6). Furthermore, the companies he led were certainly not lame ducks. Under his guidance they weathered the storms of the recession and battles for corporate control in the 1970s and showed a flair for reinvention and diversification. He also acquired a substantial experience of public corporations, as a board member of the British Steel Corporation (1967-9), the British Tourist Authority (1969-75), and the British Airways Board (1971-81).

Parker's enthusiasm for both the public and private sectors brought him to the notice of governments. In 1967 Barbara Castle offered him the chairmanship of British Rail, but he felt he could not accept the job at the then going rate of £12,500. Ten years later, after the end of Richard Marsh's reign, there was another chance. This time Parker accepted, though it meant taking a post at only £23,300 a year, a third of his private sector salary, and less than Richard Beeching had been paid fifteen years earlier. As chairman of the British Railways Board from September 1976 to September 1983, he immediately set about redressing the prevailing atmosphere of gloom and despondency-'railway fortunes were', as Parker later wrote, 'at an achingly low ebb'  (Parker, 184)-which had accompanied Marsh's failure to win more investment for the railways at a time of economic stringency; a state of 'perpetual audit', with numerous public inquiries and policy reviews; and the evident road-building enthusiasm of the Department of the Environment.

A new broom, Parker emphasized the need to respond positively and openly to his sponsoring department, now newly constituted as the Department of Transport. He also set about transforming the structure of the board. His changes in January 1977 gave the board a firmer grip of railway management via a more centralized functional shape, and heralded important further alterations: the identification of the board's subsidiaries as businesses to be operated commercially as separate limited companies; the public service obligation, a properly constituted device for subsidizing unprofitable but socially necessary passenger services; and 'sector management', the division of the railway businesses into five defined sectors-intercity, London commuting, provincial services, freight, and parcels, each with a manager given growing responsibility for financial performance. In 1978 he established a strategy unit as an 'in-house consultancy think tank', to provide longer-term planning, and went on to revolutionize British Rail's public relations, notably with the appointments of Grant Woodruff and Will Camp. Symbolically, he moved the board headquarters from the sombre 'Kremlin' at 222 Marylebone Road to the newer and brighter Rail House in Euston. He also introduced a more consensual approach to industrial relations with the joint management-union British Rail Council of 1979 and the trade association-trade union document Investment in Transport (1981). Other innovations-including the establishment of an environment panel, a commuter's charter, and improved access for the disabled-were entirely Parkerian in conception. His chairmanship also saw the development of new trains such as the flawed advanced passenger train and the more enduring high-speed train, the introduction of the Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) computer system for control of freight operating, and support for the channel tunnel, which he helped to keep alive after the abandonment of the first project in 1975. He was knighted in 1978.

Parker did not flourish in what he called the 'stony age of Thatcher'  (personal knowledge), where nationalized railways came in for particular criticism. With hindsight he should not have accepted a two-year extension to his five-year term in 1981, despite an increase in salary, to £60,000. He failed to win the government over to the desirability of a long-term policy for the railways based on social cost-benefit criteria, and his ambitious plans for railway electrification, outlined in reports in 1981, were rejected. There were also serious problems with the trade unions, where the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen's resistance to Parker's notion of a contract-investment in return for improved productivity and, more specifically, flexible methods of working, or 'flexible rostering'-was used as an example to the labour movement by the Thatcher government. Parker was instructed to stand firm, and spoke rather ruefully of 'virility symbols'. The bitter and highly visible strikes in 1982, when Parker was squeezed between an intransigent government, hawkish railway managers, and unions demanding rewards for productivity concessions, stretched his faith in consensus. Some of his actions played into the hands of opponents. His battle to obtain adequate funding of railways via warnings about the consequences of postponed maintenance-the 'crumbling edge of quality'-merely produced another searching review of railway finances, the Serpell report of 1983. The latter, although effectively sidelined by Parker's publicity machine, left him disappointed by the acrimony that accompanied it, and left his successor, Bob Reid, to cope with its findings, notably the opportunities for further savings in railway costs. At the same time Parker's enthusiasm for public-private partnership for his subsidiary businesses, a device to inject capital into these neglected activities, merely encouraged a process of privatization via disposal and sale.

In 1983 Parker returned to the private sector in rather bruised condition. Yet his legacy was not inconsiderable. He had encouraged railway managers to concentrate upon their core competences and to do so with pride. He had established a new organization with a centralized board, and with sector managers given 'bottom-line' responsibility for the several rail businesses. He certainly did not flinch in his battles with the unions. In overall terms his impact was more positive than negative.

Parker's autobiography, For Starters: the Business of Life (1989), gave due weight to his railway years, but did not allow them to dominate the account. He was far too rounded a character for that. After British Rail he went back to Rockware, helped this rather beleaguered company to revive its fortunes, and was chairman until 1992. He gathered additional posts as chairman of Whitehead Mann (1984-2000), Horace Holman (1988-93), Evered, subsequently the Bardon Group (1989-94), Arcadian International (1990-98), Apricot Computers (1990-99), and Accuread (1996-2002), and as director of various other companies, including Group 4 Securitas (1984-2002). He also pursued his business links with Japan via Mitsubishi in particular, serving as chairman of Mitsubishi Electric UK (1984-96), and then Mitsubishi Electric Europe (1996-2002). He was prominent in organizing two highly successful festivals of Jananese culture in 1991 and 2000, and remained closely involved in the organization of the duke of Edinburgh's Commonwealth study conferences. A cultured man of wide interests, he was chairman of the National Theatre Board (1986-91), and of the Young Vic (1993-6), and gave much of his time to higher education, notably as chairman of Westfield College London (1969-76), and vice-chairman of the London University Court (1970-2002). At the London School of Economics he was first a governor, then chairman of the court (1988-98), and was particularly supportive of the business history unit. He also served as vice-chairman of the British Institute of Management for many years, and helped to establish the Foundation for Management Education. He was made a KBE in 1993. Above all, he enjoyed spending time with his family at his charming retreat in Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire, where he was a keen gardener.

A unique and sometimes paradoxical figure, Parker combined a distinguished war service with left-wing sympathies, an enthusiasm for business and politics with a deep interest in literature and the arts, and support for and experience of the private sector with an equal commitment to the public sector. While his appeal to consensus and his convivial approach did not suit everyone, he was above all a crusader, an arch-motivator who could make people at all levels of an organization feel special. Described in obituaries as a 'true renaissance man', he was able to convey the excitement of the challenge of life, whether in business, academia, or politics. More than most he was equipped to prosper in what he called the 'bowl of piranhas' that was the public sector  (Parker, 194), where he approached the public policy challenge with good humour and a spirit of co-operation. In the middle of an intense battle with the trade unions he could find an analogy in poetry or political discourse. He also revealed a talent for portraiture and his sketches enlivened many a public record. His business career combined inexhaustible energy, courage, and personal warmth, and he was not afraid to innovate or take chances. As he put it: 'Do all your sums, look hard, but don't forget you still have to leap'  (ibid., 317). He died of a heart attack while on holiday in Bodrum, Turkey, on 28 April 2002, leaving an estate valued at over £2 million. He was survived by his wife, Gill, and their four children, two of whom followed him into business, and two of whom enjoyed successful careers in the arts.

Terry Gourvish 

Sources  P. Parker, For starters: the business of life (1989) + T. R. Gourvish, British Railways, 1948-73: a business history (1986) + T. Gourvish, British Rail, 1974-97: from integration to privatisation (2002) + P. S. Bagwell, End of the line? the fate of British railways under Thatcher (1984) + J. Slinn and J. Tanburn, The Booker story (2003) + British Railways Board Annual Report and Accounts (1977-83) + Review of main line electrification: final report, Department of Transport and British Railways Board (1981) + Investment in transport (1981) + Rail policy: a statement by the British Railways Board of its policies and potential for the 1980s, British Railways Board [1981] + Modern Railways (May 1977), 165 + Punch (3 Nov 1976), 778 + Directory of Directors (1972-) + The Times (30 April 2002) + Daily Telegraph (30 April 2002) + The Guardian (30 April 2002) + Financial Times (30 April 2002) + The Scotsman (30 April 2002) + The Independent (2 May 2002) + The Times (9-10 May 2002); (20 May 2002); (22-3 May 2002); (28 May 2002) + The Times (7 June 2002); (13-14 June 2002) + WW (2002) + b. cert. + m. cert.
Archives TNA: PRO FILM BFI NFTVA, Face the press, T. Kysh (director), ITV, 14 Aug 1977 + BFI NFTVA, Face the press, J. Goldby (director), Channel 4, 11 Sept 1983 + BFI NFTVA, current affairs footage + BFI NFTVA, documentary footage [also BL NSA] + BFI NFTVA, light entertainment footage SOUND BL NSA, 'Conversation with Sir Peter Parker', interview with J. Hosken, BBC Radio 4, 19 Sept 1983, T5892R + BL NSA, current affairs recordings + BL NSA, documentary recordings + BL NSA, recorded lecture
Likenesses  S. Hyde, bromide print, 1983, NPG [see illus.] · J. Bratby, portrait, priv. coll. · photographs, Getty Images, London · photographs, 1988-99, Rex Features, London · photographs, 1976-82, Empics, London · G. Levine, photograph, 1999, Camera Press, London · T. McGrath, bromide print, 1976, Camera Press, London · photograph, 1999, Universal Pictorial Press and Agency · obituary photographs
Wealth at death  £2,178,833: probate, 23 Dec 2002, CGPLA Eng. & Wales