Eric Campbell Geddes

SIR Eric Campbell Geddes, G.C.B., G.B.E., P.C. (26 September, 1875 – 22 June, 1937) was a transport administrator, politician and First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War.

Education, Early Career, and Marriage

Geddes was born at Agra, India, on 26 September 1875, the second of five children of Auckland Campbell Geddes, civil engineer, of Edinburgh and his wife, Christina Helen Macleod, daughter of the Revd Alexander Anderson, of Old Aberdeen.

Geddes was placed in a succession of public schools which included Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and Oxford Military College, Cowley, where he passed the preliminary examination in preparation for entry into Woolwich and the Royal Engineers. However, he demonstrated more interest in rugby football than in study and was required to leave most of the schools he attended. In 1892 he sailed on a passenger liner for New York with an introduction to family friends in Pittsburgh, but spent the following two years in a sequence of jobs. He scraped a living as a Remington typewriter salesman, a labourer at Carnegie's steel works, and as a lumberman in west Virginia. In relation to his later career Geddes's experience as a brakeman on freight trains and as an assistant yard master on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was more significant. In later life Geddes highlighted his origins as a railway porter as part of his ‘self-made’ mythologizing, and he deliberately emphasized his failure, in early life, to have ‘climbed the ladder’ of a successful career. He also extolled the benefits of experiencing life as a machine hand to gain insight of the working man's perspective, for any young man who was born to manage.

On Geddes's return home with little more money than he had taken, family contacts secured him a post with Carew & Co. to manage forest land in the Himalayan foothills. Subsequently he managed 50 miles of the Powayan steam tramway which the company controlled. His management of the tramway impressed the agent of the Rohilkhand and Kumaon Railway, who had worked under his father, and Geddes joined the company in 1899 and became its traffic superintendent two years later.

Geddes married Alice Gwendoline, daughter of the Revd Arthur Stokes, schoolmaster in India in 1900. The couple had three sons. He took home leave in 1903 to seek employment with a British railway company; and on his return to India he organized the transport of military forces on the railway, during a sharp deterioration in Anglo-Russian relations in 1904, which impressed Lord Kitchener as commander-in-chief. Later that year Geddes joined the North Eastern Railway (NER)—one of the largest transport enterprises in Britain—under its traffic apprenticeship scheme, and he became chief goods manager three years later. During this time his energy, focus on the larger issues, and clear judgement were identified as ideal executive qualities which were, increasingly, sought by other railway companies. In particular, his rigorous attention to statistical data to improve the volume of traffic and control operating costs was an impressive example of the NER's expertise in operating efficiency. In 1911 Geddes became deputy general manager on a salary of £5000 per annum with the promise of the general managership (in 1916) as a way of forestalling further overtures for his managerial skills. He benefited from an induction into the most innovatory management-conscious railway company in Britain.

Munitions and Military Railways

In September 1914 Geddes became a raiser of manpower to ensure the availability of men with railway experience in an identifiable unit. His 17th (service) battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (NER pioneers) was an unusual expression of local patriotism which took the form of an entire company-sponsored battalion. As government control of the railways became more centralized the prospect of vital war work at the NER diminished. In December 1914 Geddes was summoned to meet Lord Kitchener, then secretary of state for war, to discuss railway facilities in France, but it was not until Lloyd George founded the Ministry of Munitions in May 1915 that businessmen became temporary civil servants to supervise the enlarging industrial functions of the state. Geddes became the pre-eminent example (and survivor) of Lloyd George's ‘man for the job’ approach. As a deputy director of munitions supply he became responsible for the supply of rifles, machine guns, field guns, motor lorries, field kitchens, and innumerable other items, relishing his unorthodox interventionist ‘comptroller’ role. He investigated machine gun output and, in December 1915, became responsible for the new national filling factories. Geddes headed a semi-autonomous organization of managers and statisticians, many of whom were NER staff. As head of the gun ammunition department he earned a knighthood in 1916 and the undying gratitude of Lloyd George for improving shell output in time for the opening of the Somme offensive.

Lloyd George became secretary of state for war in July 1916 and he asked Geddes, ‘will you come and put Transport right in France?’ During a two-day visit at general headquarters Geddes impressed Haig who demanded his appointment as director-general of transportation in France, as his fourth principal staff officer. Geddes was already director-general of military railways at the War Office. This dual appointment, and the rank of major-general, quickly became a source of amazement. The transport base at general headquarters became known as Geddesburg and offended regular army opinion, but Haig relished Geddes's large-scale planning and his access to additional resources for the construction of an extensive light railway system to ensure that shells were rapidly transported to front-line artillery positions. Geddes noted, ‘War is made up of the use of men, with munitions and movement as handmaids’ (Geddes to Lloyd George, 8 Aug 1918, Lloyd George MSS P/18/2/8). In addition to tackling the problem of railway congestion, detailed surveys were made of port facilities, inland waterways, and roads so that traffic flow proceeded on a more integrated basis. In March 1917 Geddes's responsibilities expanded further with his appointment as inspector-general of communications in all theatres of war. However, he remained in France and was consulted by Haig on the timing of the Arras attack on 4 April 1917 because the light railways were a crucial feature of the timetabled supply system.

Geddes and Haig attached great importance to their Scottish identities and regretted the ending of their working partnership. In reflecting on the war years in 1920 Geddes described his period at general headquarters as ‘the happiest time of my life’ (Lloyd George MSS, G/252). His younger brother Auckland, later Lord Geddes, noted that during this period Eric ‘radiated capacity’ and it was his ‘noontide hour’ (Geddes, 240). Haig noted his ‘quick intuition of requirements and his powers of drive and energy’ (Haig to Lord Derby, 22 Nov 1917, Lloyd George MSS F/14/4/78). The pioneering role of Sir Eric Geddes as a civilian to rectify a supply problem in the military sphere was widely discussed during 1917 as one of the more notable, if unorthodox, achievements of civil–military relations in the war. It was remembered by Winston Churchill in August 1941 who in one of his ‘Action this day’ notes to the War Office stated, ‘If you do not give me your very best man and one thoroughly capable of doing the work, I will look for a civilian of the Eric Geddes type, and have him invested with the necessary military rank’ (M. Gilbert, W. S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–41, 1983, 1152). Lloyd George's ‘civilianizing’ approach to malfunctioning aspects of the war effort was extended into the naval sphere in May 1917 when he appointed Geddes controller of the navy with responsibility for Admiralty dock facilities and shipyards. Geddes was required to adopt naval rank and was briefly both vice-admiral and major-general at the same time, which invoked many cartoon responses.

Geddes at the Admiralty

Lloyd George wanted to create a separate supply department for the Admiralty, similar to the relationship of the Ministry of Munitions to the War Office as the relationship of ship construction rates to tonnage sunk deteriorated. However, Geddes and his (NER) staff—characterized in the Admiralty as ‘bright people full of new ideas from the north’ (W. James, A Great Seaman, 1956, 158)—obtained less than full control of shipyards in the three months that he grappled with the problem after May 1917. Lloyd George suspected intransigent naval custom and complacent organization throughout the Admiralty and on 6 July 1917 replaced Carson as first lord of the Admiralty with Geddes. As political head of the Admiralty he became Unionist member of parliament for Cambridge University and, subsequently, was sworn of the privy council. As head of a fighting department, but not, initially, a member of the war cabinet, without political experience and more remote from the security of Lloyd George's personal supervision, organizational change and ministerial control were difficult to obtain at the Admiralty. His dismissal of the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, to remove resistance to the convoy system, was a bruising experience in December 1917 for it was made without much ministerial support. Consequently, Geddes lobbied for an appointment as allied transport ‘supremo’ for all movements of manpower and material on the western and Italian fronts.

In 1918 Geddes found the admirals less difficult to work with but the clashes between an improviser par excellence and age-old naval traditions continued to highlight the problems which confronted administrators as they stepped into the political limelight without a sufficient ‘hardening process’. During 1918 Geddes enjoyed opportunities to lead troubleshooting missions to Italy, north Russia, and the United States to review aspects of the naval war effort. As the war came to an end Geddes was anxious to ensure that the role of the British navy and mercantile marine was publicized to convey the point that the national contribution to victory did not merely comprise the armies on the western front. During 1918 the Admiralty board reorganization schemes were implemented in a more constructive context of mutual respect between the first sea lord, Admiral Sir Wester Wemyss, and commander-in-chief Grand Fleet, Admiral Sir David Beatty. In some ways the firmer determination to assert British offensive maritime power was illustrated by the Zeebrugge raid in April 1918. It was some recompense for the nagging feeling expressed by Geddes that he had become a politician against his better judgement.

Geddes and Transport

In January 1919 Beatty wrote to Geddes to regret his departure from the Admiralty. Geddes was firmly resolved on this course of action, but from October 1918 he was extremely unsettled about post-war prospects. Four posts of increasing significance had drawn him away from the NER, but the prospect of a political career was an insufferable idea. After the coalition manifesto was signed on 12 November, Lloyd George quickly appealed to Geddes to remain available ‘for the organization of the immense questions of transportation’ (Lloyd George MSS, F/18/2/26) during the further two years of government control of the railways. The coalition programme appeared to express national unity and social harmony and Geddes's imagination was captured by the ‘priceless opportunity’ (S. W. Roskill, Hankey: Man of Secrets, vol. 2) of organizing a state subsidized integrated transport network which he assumed would be a consensual, indeed depoliticized, scheme. As a couponed Unionist candidate at the general election Geddes came under pressure to clarify his position on ‘making Germany pay’ and on 9 December 1918 he said ‘we will get everything out of her that you can squeeze out of a lemon and a bit more’ (The Times 10 Dec 1918), which did not represent the gist of his early electioneering speeches. As there was no immediate prospect of legislation for a transport ministry Geddes co-ordinated demobilization and industrial rehabilitation in December 1918 which suggested the continuing relevance of wartime improvisers to rectify the immediate problems of peace. Large scale demobilization was another problem entirely without precedent but, more noticeably, the transforming power of businessmen–ministers was less evident in conditions of peace.

Non-interventionist economic orthodoxy and issues of private ownership undermined plans for transport reorganization and by August 1919, when the Ministry of Transport was established, the idea of a ‘supreme co-ordinating authority’ had given way to the financial complexities of preparing the railways for decontrol. In the absence of the state's commitment to enhancing the national infrastructure, Geddes declared his opposition to nationalization and promoted the idea of private ownership with amalgamations in his cabinet paper ‘Future transport policy’ of 9 February 1920. Standardized wages and conditions of service and the settlement of ‘incomprehensible’ wartime railway agreements were hard-won achievements as the Railways Act of 1921 turned the Ministry of Transport into a watchdog, and the priority became financial stability in the industry and the savings which the department secured for the state. After over six years of close association with Lloyd George, Geddes departed as the last businessman-in-government in August 1921. In the years 1919–21 he was given a further troubleshooting role as chairman of the supply and transport committee (STC) and assumed a firm place in Labour's demonology as co-ordinator of the government's strike-breaking organization. His involvement was probably a case of practical transport experience rather than ideological fervour. He often seemed intent on narrowing the focus of the STC's contingency plans in the absence of cabinet agreement on the scenarios which would cause it to intervene. In September 1921 he noted that the STC should be disbanded, and although the power of trade unions worried Geddes, he was not a typical representative of a homogeneous political élite.

The Geddes Axe

As chairman of the committee on national expenditure in August 1921 Geddes participated in the dissolution of reconstructionist ideas. It was a final service to Lloyd George in the delivery of a highly publicized quest for retrenchment which acknowledged the failure of reconstruction. It also gave Geddes a reputation for fiscal management prior to his return to industry. Like many businessmen, he did not respect education expenditure but the main reason for the Geddes axe lay not with the chairman's desire for public economy, but with Lloyd George's attempts to sustain Conservative support for his premiership. It was confirmation of the assertion of Treasury control and the return to normality. In this way the partnership of Lloyd George and Geddes highlighted the political continuities and economic coherence of the years 1915–21. Thereafter Geddes tended to assert the separateness of politics and business.

Later Business Career

Geddes left the House of Commons in February 1922 and joined three months later the board of directors of Dunlop Rubber Company Ltd. In December 1922 he became chairman and his commitment to Dunlop was his largest business interest in his remaining years. In 1924 he became part-time chairman of Imperial Airways Ltd on a one day per week basis, although this commitment grew in later years. Dunlop's financial crisis represented a formidable business challenge which became clear in the Whinney report in September 1923. After 1924 he initiated a policy of acquisitions to diversify the product range beyond tyres to general rubber products. The productive capacity of Fort Dunlop near Birmingham was greatly extended in the years 1925–8 and Geddes paid particular attention to manufacturing layout, time and motion studies, and the exploration of management ideas. He was always interested in the latest ‘American practice’ and in his visits to the United States he sought opportunities to discuss work study while remaining sceptical of theoretical models of explanation. Instead, accountancy was an important aid to centralized control at Dunlop in the 1920s; and it became one of the most measured companies in Britain as the NER had been in the Edwardian era. In addition, he was fully aware that Dunlop's place in the market depended on the constant application of technological innovation. He was, frequently, the first critical consumer of Dunlop's newly marketed lines. Alongside the importance of scientific research he recognized the revolutionary impact of mass production, for example, on the debate on protective tariffs, such as the McKenna duties. Geddes had a combative approach to the defence of Dunlop's interests in dialogue with governments and tributes to his energy and vision in 1937 mentioned the same qualities of commitment and purpose which were noted at the end of his ministerial career in 1922.

As part-time chairman of Imperial Airways, Geddes used the same purposeful approach, contributing to the development of a commercial air service and the promotion of ‘air-mindedness’. His knowledge of transport and his experience of Whitehall were vital qualities, as continuous contact with the Air Ministry was an inevitable feature of managing a subsidized ‘chosen instrument’ of the government's civil air policy. Under Geddes's chairmanship empire routes were negotiated and the hostility towards the overland flight paths was confronted. To publicize the flying boat Geddes undertook an aerial cruise on Britain's western seaboard in 1928. In 1929 he visited Australia to promote an extension of the weekly service between Britain and India and he participated fully in the inter-governmental agreements which led to the first airmail flight to Australia in 1934. He undertook a tour of inspection of the Cape to Cairo link in 1932 and having negotiated with all the governments en route he drafted the first law of the air. The long haul scheduled ‘flying hotel’ services served the all-up empire airmail scheme for which Imperial Airways were paid a tightly negotiated fee. The financial structure drew increasing controversy but the original conception became an exciting visual expression of imperial unity in the 1930s. Much was expected of the state-subsidized airline and criticism in parliament in 1936 brought the monopolistic phase of British commercial aviation to an end. By this stage a full-time chairman was needed to direct the business, not least because the airline was more obviously a national and strategic asset. To use his own phrase Geddes led the ‘steady, conservative building-up of the Company’ (Geddes to Hoare, 5 Aug 1929, Templewood MSS, TEM V:4) during experimental years of low capacity and high maintenance costs.

Assessment and Death

Lloyd George concluded that Geddes was ‘one of the most remarkable products of the great War’ (tribute, 23 June 1937, Lloyd George MSS, G/8/7/21). His work provided evidence that total war in the early twentieth century was as much a matter of continuous supply and organizational elasticity as it was of mobilization and operational planning. He offered systematic plans and had to confront the assumptions which separated civil and military spheres of the war effort. The participation in Lloyd George's coalition government of businessmen–ministers proved contentious as party politics returned to normality and the active spending state was dissolved. Geddes was president of the Federation of British Industries in the years 1923–5 and expressed frustration with adverse trading conditions in Europe. He sought to influence government policy on specific issues but usually saw the spheres of politics and industry as separate after 1922. He remained in contact with few politicians, with the exception of Lloyd George.

Geddes had a reputation for ‘pushful’ force, impatience, independent thought, and unremitting toil and it was a measure of his significance as a ‘captain of industry’ or ‘superman’ that he was asked by the Bank of England to advise the board of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation from October 1931 to August 1932. He was a hard-working, technically proficient Scot of large stature whose respect for innovation in the transport sphere knew few equals. He was enthusiastic and often inspirational but his managerial approach did not always make for harmony.

After Geddes's knighthood in 1916 he was subsequently appointed K.C.B. (military) in 1917, G.B.E. in the same year, and G.C.B. (civil) in 1919; he declined a peerage unless it could be for his life only; the honorary degree of LLD was conferred on him by Sheffield University in 1920 and he was president of the Institute of Transport in 1919–20. His wife's health had deteriorated and after 1912 she became, in effect, permanently invalided, which his brother Auckland noted as his ‘inner sorrow’. Geddes died at his country house, Albourne Place, near Hassocks, Sussex, on 22 June 1937 after a long illness, his wife dying in 1945. After cremation his ashes were placed on an Empire flying boat of Imperial Airways and scattered in the English Channel off the Isle of Wight.