Former PO chairman dies at 87

Sir William Barlow

A HOLLINWOOD-born businessman who headed some of the world’s biggest companies has died aged 87.

Sir William Barlow was best known as former chairman and chief executive of the Post Office — the man who oversaw the split between Royal Mail and Post Office Telephones — now BT.

Sir William, who lived in Windsor Road, Coppice, was the son of a headmaster and won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School before studying electrical engineering at UMIST. A highly-experienced engineering manager, he was instrumental in a number of major international company restructures including English Electric Computers’ merger with International Computers and Tabulators to create ICL.

He also initiated the merger of three leading UK ballbearing manufacturers to create Ransomes Hoffman Pollard (RHP) instigating modernisation which made the business highly competitive around the world. In 1977 he was knighted for his services to industry, around the time he took over the Post Office with its 420,000 employees. In 1984 Sir William moved on to be chairman and chief executive of BICC.

Its cable business — one of the world’s largest — was developing optical-fibre capacity and very high-voltage cables, and its construction arm, Balfour Beatty, was heavily involved in the design and construction of the Channel Tunnel.

He also chaired Ericsson UK, SKF UK, Barking Power and Kennedy & Donkin (later Parsons & Brinckerhoff), and held numerous directorships, including a decade as a founder director of Vodafone.

From 1991 to 1996 Sir William was president of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Although he had long since moved away from the borough it was always close to his heart and he was deputy president of the Association of Lancastrians in London.

As well as family links to Oldham, as head of Thorn EMI Engineering in the Eighties he had overall control of Stott Benham, in Royton, Thomas Glover, in Hathershaw, and Thorn Brimar, in Chadderton.


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