G. H. Stuart‐Bunning, O.B.E.
| Date | 01 December 1949 |
| Published date | 01 December 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1949.tb02709.x |
6.
H.
Stuart-Bunning, O.B.E.
We regret to announce the death of
Mr.
G.
H.
Stuart-Bunning on the 19th
June, 1949 in his 79th year. He was one
of the earliest members of the Institute
and will be well known to those members
who attended the various Conferences.
In discussion and in writing he had a
clear and pungent method
of
expressing
himself, a good example being, his
article on the Post Office Mystery
(Public Administration Vol.
X.
1932).
But his main claim to the gratitude of
the public services is the key part he
played in the establishment of the
Whitley Council for the civil service.
On this,
Miss
Rose Smith-Rose, herself
a former member of the first National
Whitley Council has written in the
August 1949 issue of the WHITLEY
BULLETIN.
"
His place in Civil Service history
is
assured for none can deny him the
main credit for securing the granting of
full-blooded Whitleyism to the Civil
Service in 1919 by the Government of
the day. When the original Whitley
Report had been accepted by the Govern-
ment and appeals sent by the Ministry
of Labour to all employers' associations
and trade unions to form industrial
councils, it was Stuart-Bunning who
visualised the potentialities of Whitleyism
in the Civil Service and went to the
House of Commons to see Mr.
J.
H.
Whitley (then Speaker) to ask whether it
was the intention of the Whitley Com-
mittee to leave the Service outside the
scope of their proposals. Mr. Whitley's
assurance that the Whitley system was
regarded as equally appropriate to
national and local government service as
to industry was followed by some inten-
sive staff work culminating in the
historic meeting of staff representatives
at Caxton Hall in 1919 when the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Austen
Chamberlain, sought to impose an
emasculated form of Whitleyism on the
Civil Service. The Chancellor was out-
generalled by Stuart-Bunning who by
really brilliant tactics created
a
situation
in which no alternative was left open
to the Chancellor but to yield grace-
fully to the desire of the Service for
the acceptance of the full doctrine
of
Whitleyism and to set up a committee to
frame an acceptable scheme. As Bun-
ning himself said of that memorable
occasion,
"
For once the Service was
not only solid, but silently solid "-as
the tactics of the situation demanded,
no proposal apart from Bunning's vital
amendment to the Chancellor's offer
being brought forward to fog the issue.
But for
his
leadership at that fateful time
Whitleyism as known in the Service
to-day would have remained unborn,
at any rate until the staff movement had
become possessed of greater strength
and unity than it had in those troublous
days when co-operation between the
associations was the exception and not-
as now-the rule.
"
During his six years leadership of the
Staff Side
as
Vice-chairman of the
newly-formed National Whitley Council
,
Stuart-Bunning brought to all his duties
qualities of statesmanship which made
his contribution to Service Whitleyism
in its formative years of outstanding
value. He had vision and foresight far
beyond most people and a lightninr
quickness of brain and speech.
I
have
met
no
one with a quicker grasp of
essentials in the examination of memo-
randa.
.
.
.
"
To
the man whose foresight and
great gifts led to its inception in 1919
and largely shaped its course during the
early fateful years
I
now pay tribute.
Like so many
of
his kind he could not
suffer fools gladly. He could be very
caustic at times and his remarks were
sometimes very wounding. But those
who got to know the man himself saw
that, underneath, his nature was kindly
and he was ever ready to be helpful.
Many of his colleagues had reason to be
grateful for his sound advice and to the
end
of
his life he never lost what
Kipling described as
"
the common
touch.''
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