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.