Maurice Arthur Pryor (23 June 1911 – 20 December 1969) was an English

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

executive who served as President of the Institute of Brewing.

Life

Maurice Arthur Pryor was born on 23 June 1911, the son of

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

John Arthur Pryor. In 1935, he married Veronica Beatrice (died 1992), daughter of Major Aynsley Eyre Greenwell and Beatrice Lilian ''née'' Sanderson, and had one son and three daughters."Pryor, Maurice Arthur"
''Who Was Who'' (online edition), Oxford University Press, April 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2016. Mosley, Charles (2003), ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage'', 107th ed., (Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage and Gentry), vol. 2, p. 1655 Following schooling at Stowe, he joined Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. as a Director in 1934, a brewery which had merged with the Pryor family brewery in 1816 and where his father was on the Board.L. J. T.(1970)
"Obituary: Maurice Arthur Pryor"
''Journal of the Institute of Brewing'', vol. 76, issue 1, p. 13 (subscription required). Retrieved 27 April 2016. His career was interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when he joined the

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

. He became a Lieutenant Commander in 1940, serving in Light Coastal forces. After he was demobilised, he returned to his old brewery as a member of the Board; in 1964 he succeeded his father (who had been in the post for 19 years) as Chairman. Alongside that post, he was chairman of Daniell & Sons Breweries, Ltd., Haven Inns Ltd., Russell’s Gravesend Brewery Ltd. and The Writtle Brewery Co. Ltd., alongside other directorships. Pryor took an active interest in the Institute of Brewing, of which he was a member for 28 years; he was on the Research Board and the Research Policy Committee, and served as President between 1958 and 1960. He was also Chairman of the Brewers' Society between 1962–64 and Master of the Brewers' Company in 1962; he therefore held the rare distinction of chairing the three leading professional organisations for the brewing industry. In his private life, Pryor enjoyed sailing. Professionally, he encouraged information exchange through the

European Brewery Convention The European Brewery Convention (EBC) is an organisation representing the technical and scientific interests of the brewing sector in Europe. The EBC defines itself as the scientific and technological arm of The Brewers of Europe. Among brewers, ...

and, according to an obituary in the IOB's journal, he possessed a "very wide knowledge of all aspects of the industry and ... shrewd judgement." He died, suddenly at his home, on 21 December 1969.

Likenesses

''Maurice Arthur Pryor''
by Rex Coleman, for Baron Studios (5 x 4 inch film negative), 25 November 1963.

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

(Photographs Collection, NPG x191766. Given by Godfrey Argent, 1999).

References

1911 births 1969 deaths English brewers Masters of the Worshipful Company of Brewers 20th-century English businesspeople {{Beer-stub