Gerald Beadle

Sir Gerald Clayton Beadle CBE (17 April 1899 – 6 November 1976) was a British announcer and administrator for BBC Radio, and later Director of BBC Television.

Beadle was born on 17 April 1899 in Belvedere, Kent, to Clayton Beadle (1868–1917), a chemist, and Helen Pears Beadle.¹²³ In 1891 his father, with Charles Frederick Cross and Edward John Bevan developed Viscose, the first manufacture of a synthetic fiber.

He joined the BBC in 1923, as a radio announcer. He left in 1924 and rejoined in 1926 as station director in Belfast.³ He moved to the television team in 1936.⁴ He was instrumental in establishing the BBC's Television Centre, in London.⁴

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1951 New Year Honours⁵ and made a Knight Bachelor in the 1961 New Year Honours.⁴

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 30 October 1961.⁶

His portrait, a 1961 photograph by Walter Bird, is in the National Portrait Gallery.⁷

He died on 6 November 1976, in Bath.³⁸