Sir Gordon Charles Brunton (27 December 1921 – 30 May 2017) was a British businessman, publisher, racehorse owner and breeder.

Early life, education and military service

Born in London, Brunton was educated briefly at

Cranleigh School Cranleigh School is a Private school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. History It was opened on 29 September 1865 as a boys' school 'to provide a sound and plain education, on the principle ...

, Surrey and then at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

where he studied under

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

, RH Tawney,

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

and

Eileen Power Eileen Edna Le Poer Power (9 January 18898 August 1940) was a British economic historian and medievalist. Early life and education Eileen Power was the eldest daughter of a stockbroker and was born at Altrincham, Cheshire (now part of Greate ...

. It was Laski's arguments and ideas had a particular influence on Gordon Brunton's thinking. During the onset of World War II, Brunton left university prematurely and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1940 and went onto serve as a Captain in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

and

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. For much of the war, he fought in the Burma campaign before joining the British Military Government in Düsseldorf and Hamburg working on the reconstruction of local infrastructure. After the war, Brunton worked as a door to door salesman selling classified advertising space to small businesses outside London. He died on 30 May 2017 at the age of 95.BRUNTON
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The Thomson Organisation, Publishing, Travel, North Sea Oil and Times Newspapers

Joining Thomson

In 1961 Gordon Brunton had been working at

Odhams Odhams Press was a British publishing company, operating from 1920 to 1968. Originally a magazine publisher, Odhams later expanded into book publishing and then children's comics. The company was acquired by Fleetway Publications in 1961 and the ...

when he was hired as Managing Director of Thomson Publications by

Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, (5 June 1894 – 4 August 1976) was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London. He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in ...

founder of the Thomson Newspapers & International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL)

Thomson Corporation Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reut ...

now

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

. Brunton went onto work for the 2nd Baron, Lord Thomson of Fleet

Kenneth Thomson Kenneth Roy Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet (September 1, 1923 – June 12, 2006), known in Canada as Ken Thomson, was a Canadian/British businessman and art collector. At the time of his death, he was listed by ''Forbes'' as the richest pe ...

who succeeded his late father in 1976.

Chief Executive 1966-84

Brunton served as Chief Executive of Thomson Newspapers & International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL)

from 1966 to 1984 during the Thomson period of global expansion and diversification into travel, oil, print, book, magazine, newspaper, trade and technical press and local directory publishing. By the late 1970s ITOL had become one of the largest and most influential companies in the world. Brunton retired from Thomson in 1985. He has been credited as being a major architect in the construction and diversification of the

during the firms years as a conglomerate.

Travel

Of particular note was during the late 1960s, with Gordon Brunton leading the diversification into the package tour business for Thomson, this was later supported by his friend from the

LSE LSE may refer to: Education * London School of Economics, a public research university within the University of London * Lahore School of Economics, a private university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan * Lincoln Southeast High School, a public gove ...

Vladimir Raitz Vladimir Gavrilovich Raitz (23 May 1922 – 31 August 2010) was a Russian-born British businessman who co-founded the Horizon Holiday Group, which pioneered the first mass package holidays abroad. Born in Moscow, his family were White Russian J ...

, founder of Horizon Holiday Group.

Thomson Holidays Thomson Travel Group plc was a business formed by the Thomson Corporation of Canada, when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. It was acquired by Preussag AG, an industrial and transport conglomerate, in 2000. The group continu ...

now

TUI AG TUI AG ( trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known ...

grew with the acquisition of Sky Tours, Rivera Holidays and a then small air carrier

Britannia Airways Britannia Airways Limited was a charter airline based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1961 as Euravia (London) Limited and became the world's largest holiday airline. Britannia's main bases were at London Gatwick, London Stansted, Lo ...

. Britannia became a major charter airline and Thomson leased a fleet of

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating ...

aircraft, becoming the first European carrier to buy the Boeing product. Brunton believed Thomson had certain advantages in entering the travel market, at a time when tastes were changing for British holidaymakers with shifting aspirations for overseas holidays. The major expenses for travel companies were the print brochures and the PR and advertising space needed to promote package holidays. Brunton argued that Thomson held an advantage over their competitors with their printing presses, free access to their media empire with advertising and editorial capacity in their national and regional newspaper network. This put Thomson ahead of other package tour operators. This gamble despite considerable opposition within Thomson management, proved highly successful and within a few years Thomson became a market leader in European travel.

North Sea Oil

In the early 1970s, Brunton instigated ITOL's highly risky and calculated gamble into the

North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian ...

venture with the late Dr

Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The son of a Russian Empire-born communist activist, Hammer trained as a physician before beginning his career in trade with the newly estab ...

and

Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the ...

and

J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was the son of pion ...

. Initially a speculative consortium seeking new fields, it established both the

Piper Alpha Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea about north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 1976, initially as an oi ...

and

Claymore A claymore (; from , "great sword") is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sloping quillons with ...

fields and the Flotta Refinery on the island of Orkney. Under government regulations, of the time, the Americans desperately needed a supportive British partner and Thomson had significant influence in Scotland as

Roy Thomson Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, (5 June 1894 – 4 August 1976) was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London. He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in ...

had owned both

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

newspaper since 1953 and

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

from his early days in Britain. In 1972 the consortium was successful in its application for a North Sea license. These North Sea revenues enabled Thomson to further diversify into specialist and technical publishing in North America and acquire multiple companies during the 1970s and 1980s.

Times Newspapers

More challenging times lay ahead as Brunton performed a leading role in the prolonged print union conflict of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

and

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Roy Thomson had previously purchased the titles from the

Astor family The Astor family achieved prominence in business sector, business, Socialite, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With Germans, German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to th ...

in 1967 to form

Times Newspapers Limited News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...

. After many years of disruption Thomson Management eventually took a particularly hard stance against the more militant elements of the print unions, which resulted in the closure of the loss making Times Newspapers from (1 December 1978 – 12 November 1979) however Times Newspapers continued to pay staff and company overheads during the closure. The losses at the Times eventually led to the decision of the Thomson family to sell both titles to

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

of which Brunton acted as the chief negotiator for Thomson.

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

was identified as the only viable buyer for the Times and Sunday Times, as he provided assurances that both newspaper titles would remain in single ownership and in circulation. Other bidders were only interested in the profitable Sunday Times and would have shut down the Times newspaper. Brunton was adamant this could not be allowed happen and Thomson decided in 1981 to sell to News International.

Social Enterprise

During Gordon Brunton's era at the International Thomson Organisation, the company established a number of community redevelopment and local economic regeneration programs including a model scheme in Neath, South Wales.

Sotheby's Chairmanship

Gordon Brunton's reputation of being a safe pair of hands and a skilled negotiator resulted in undertaking a crisis management role at the troubled auction house

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

as Chairman. During this turbulent period, Brunton made enforced cuts and personnel changes to bring stability to a business which had been judged to have been poorly mismanaged. He succeeded auctioneer Peter Wilson. His role was to stabilize the business and latterly hold off the well documented 1983 hostile takeover bid from New Jersey carpet and felt makers

Marshall Cogan Marshall S. Cogan (born 1937) is an American investor and entrepreneur and former financier and trader. Cogan was the founder of United Automotive Group, which he built into one of the largest retailers of cars and trucks in the U.S. As a private ...

and Stephen Swid of General Felt Industries and Knoll International. The Board consensus was neither Cogan or Swid were suitable buyers and eventually the company was sold to real estate developer

A. Alfred Taubman Adolph Alfred "Al" Taubman (January 31, 1924 – April 17, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. In 2002, he was convicted for a price-fixing scheme involving the top two auction houses in the United States. Early li ...

Other business

He was subsequently chairman at

Mercury Communications Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Although it proved only moderately successful at challen ...

, Cable and Wireless Communications PLC,

Racing Post ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing, and sports betting publisher published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60,629 ...

, Bemrose PLC, NXT PLC, Galahad Gold and others.

Horse racing

A well known racehorse owner and breeder, most notably

Indian Queen Indian Queen (25 February 1985 – July 2000) was a British thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the Ascot Gold Cup on her final racecourse appearance. Background Indian Queen was a chestnut mare bred by her owner Sir Gordon Bru ...

winner of the 1991

Ascot Gold Cup The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles 3 furlongs and 210 yards (4 ...

Other

Awarded:

Knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

1985 Club:

Garrick Club The Garrick Club is a private members' club in London, founded in 1831 as a club for "actors and men of refinement to meet on equal terms". It is one of the oldest members' clubs in the world. Its 1,500 members include many actors, writers, ...

Pilgrims Society The Pilgrims Society, founded on 16 July 1902 by Harry Brittain, Sir Harry Brittain KBE CMG, is a British-American society established, in the words of American diplomat Joseph Choate, 'to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace ...

Thirty Club Fellow:

Recreations: Books, breeding thoroughbred racehorses Married: Twice

References

*''

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' 2006 * Sir Gordon Brunton, A Private Autobiography, Published London 2014. * LSE Honorary Fellows

http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/governanceAndCommittees/honoraryFellows.aspx *Susan Goldenberg, ''The Thomson Empire: A Multi Billion Dollar Canadian Dynasty'' (Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1984) *

Lord Thomson of Fleet Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, (5 June 1894 – 4 August 1976) was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London. He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in ...

'' Roy Thomson, After I Was Sixty: Autobiography'' (Collins, London 1964) *John Grigg, ''The History of the Times Volume V1 The Thomson Years 1966-1981'' (Times Books, London 1993) *

William Shawcross Sir William Hartley Hume Shawcross (born 28 May 1946) is a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the incumbent Commissioner for Public Appointments. From 2012 to 2018 he chaired the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Shawcr ...

''Murdoch: The Making of a Media Empire'' (Simon & Schuster, USA 1992) *Oliver Woods & James Bishop, ''The Story of The Times'' (Michael Joseph, London 1983) *

Denis Hamilton Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Denis Hamilton, DSO, TD (6 December 1918 – 7 April 1988) was an English newspaper editor. He was born in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of an engineer from the Acklam iron and steel work ...

''Editor-in-Chief, Fleet Street Memoirs'' (Hamish Hamilton, London 1989) *

Robert Lacey Robert Lacey (born 3 January 1944) is a British historian and biographer. He is the author of a number of best-selling biographies, including those of Henry Ford, Eileen Ford, Queen Elizabeth II and other royals, as well as several other wo ...

''Sotherby’s: Bidding For Class'' (Little Brown, New York 1998) *Bruce Page, ''The Murdoch Archipelago'' (Simon & Schuster, London 2003) *Graham Stewart, ''The History of The Times: The Murdoch Years'', (Harper Collins Publishers Limited 2005) *

Woodrow Wyatt Woodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford (4 July 1918 – 7 December 1997) was a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster, close to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch. For the last twenty years of his life, he ...

edited Sarah Curtis, ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt Volume One'' (Macmillan, London 1998) *Bray and Raitz, ''Flight to the Sun'' (Continuum London 2001) *Vladimir Raitz Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/7980651/Vladimir-Raitz.html (3 September 2010) *Ian Ormes, ''Chartered Success'' (Granta Editions, August 2002) *James Lambie, ''The Story of Your Life: A History of the Sporting Life Newspaper (1859-1998)'' (Matador, September 2010) *The Life and Times of a Newspaper Baron,Peter Day https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35924027 (01/04/16 BBC Business News) *History of Thomson Reuters, http://thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/company-history.html ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunton Gordon 1921 births 2017 deaths People educated at Cranleigh School Royal Artillery officers Alumni of the London School of Economics British Army personnel of World War II Businesspeople from London The Times people Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods British racehorse owners and breeders Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics 20th-century English businesspeople