Hussey, Marmaduke James (1923–2006)

English media manager and administrator. He was chief executive and managing director of Times Newspapers 1971–80 and chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 1986–96.

He presided over the confrontation between Times Newspapers and the print union that led to the twelve-month closure of The Times and the Sunday Times in 1978. As chairman of the BBC, he was beset by questions over funding. His relationship with director-general John Birt became strained, especially after they disagreed about the broadcast of a ‘tell-all’ interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995.

Hussey was educated at Rugby and at Trinity College, Oxford, where his studies were interrupted by World War II. While serving as a platoon commander in the Grenadier Guards, he was wounded at Anzio and had his leg amputated at a German field hospital. After completing his degree at Oxford, he joined Associated Newspapers as a management trainee in 1949. He was made a life peer, becoming Baron Hussey of North Bradley, in 1996.