GEORGE CAMPEY OBE
by Peter Rosier

For 22 years George Campey built and then maintained the reputation of the BBC but once he was its fiercest critic.

He started his career with The Hull Daily Mail, working later for The Daily Telegraph and Manchester Guardian. As television writer for The Evening Standard he coined the word “Eurovision” in 1951 to decribe Europe’s new television link-up – long before The Eurovision Song Contest.

In 1953 as the Government debated whether to allow the BBC to cover the Coronation live, George followed the controversy for The Standard.

One day he was tipped off to “get down to the Abbey now.” There he found the Duke of Norfolk and Peter Dimmock then assistant head of outside broadcasts, picking out the prime camera positions;  so George was first with the news that the Coronation would be live and so the BBC and British television ushered in a new age.

A year later he started his 22 year career at the BBC as television publicity officer, succeeding Huw Wheldon and preparing the BBC to face a challenger - ITV

In 1958 he was appointed Head of Publicity and set about building BBC Information into a department fit to promote the reputation of the world’s best known broadcaster.

He served and advised three directors general – Sir Ian Jacob, Hugh Carlton Greene and Charles Curren, steering them and the BBC through controversies from That Was The Week That Was and Mary Whitehouse to endless government broadcasting enquiries.

Always there too was his deputy and friend, Roland Fox, the ex Parliamentary Correspondent who died shortly before George.

He was born in Hull on October 29, 1915 and died at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, on  June 8.

He leaves a wife Shirley who also worked for the BBC, son Richard and grandson Thomas.