Harry Pilkington

Pilkington was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the eldest son of Richard Austin Pilkington (1871-1951), JP, of Eccleston Grange, St Helens, a director of the family glass-manufacturing business, Pilkington Brothers Ltd,^[2] and his wife, Hope (1876-1947), daughter of the politician and judge Herbert Cozens-Hardy, 1st Baron Cozens-Hardy.^[3] His younger brother, Lawrence, would join him as a director of the family business; the third brother was the biologist and writer Roger Pilkington.^[4] The Pilkington family were Congregationalist.^[5] He was educated at Rugby School, a boarding independent school in the market town of Rugby in Warwickshire, followed by Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge.^[1]

Pilkington joined the board of the family business, Pilkington Brothers Ltd, in 1934 and served as chairman from 1949 to 1973. This glass manufacturing company became the lone survivor of twenty-four British glass manufacturers from the 19th century. While other companies died from competition, the Pilkington company advanced its techniques, especially in safety glass and glass sheets, using the company's proprietary float glass process.^[6] In 1967 the company controlled 85% of the glass-making business in the United Kingdom and exported its products to over 100 countries.

The Pilkington Report concluded that the British public were not being well-served by commercial television due to what it regarded as its American-influenced programming (such as westerns). It further concluded that although the British public had not been explicitly asked whether they wanted commercial radio, there was no evidence to support the contention that they wanted it. The unintended result of this conclusion was the creation of offshore commercial pirate radio in 1964. It also commended the BBC for the high quality of its television programming and recommended that the franchise for the-then third television channel should be granted to the BBC (which opened as BBC 2 in 1964), rather than to a commercial operator.

In 1930, Pilkington married firstly, Rosamond^[7] Margaret, daughter of Royal Army Medical Corps Colonel Henry Davis Rowan, of Rathmore, Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland. Rosamond died in 1953, having had with her husband a son and two daughters. He married secondly Mavis Joy Doreen, daughter of master reed-maker Gilbert Caffrey, of Woodleigh, Lostock Park, Bolton, and former wife of Dr John Hesketh Wilding.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Knighted in 1953 New Years Honours List,^[12] Pilkington was created a Life Peer on 18 January 1968, in the 1968 New Years Honours List taking the title Baron Pilkington, of St Helens in the County Palatine of Lancashire.^[13] He was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) by Loughborough University in 1966.^[14]

• National Portrait Gallery, London – Sir Harry sat for six portraits
• "Pilkington Shines Again". Time. 15 December 1967.
• New Yorker magazine commenting upon the Pilkington Report, July 1962.
• Speech by Sir Harry to the Empire Club of Canada - 1 December 1955, Toronto, Canada.