Alex Dibbs

Arthur Henry Alexander Dibbs CBE (9 December 1918 – 28 November 1985), commonly known as Alex, was a British banker who served as CEO from 1972 until 1977 and then as Deputy Chairman of NatWest until 1982.

CBE insignia

Background and early life

Of Scottish extraction, he was born in 1918 at Bombay in British India, the only son of Captain Henry James Dibbs (1887–1959), late Indian Army^[1] and Phyllis née Baker, whose mother's family were cadets of the ancient Cottons from Shropshire. His patrilineal great-great-granduncle, Captain John Dibbs, married in Australia and was father of Sir Thomas Dibbs and the Hon. Sir George Dibbs.

Educated at Dover College then the Whitgift School, Dibbs later pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard.^[2]

Career

In 1935 he joined Westminster Bank, before transferring in 1939 to its Metropolitan Control department at Lothbury in the City, working there briefly until the outbreak of World War II. Commissioned into the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment and seconded to the King's African Rifles, Dibbs served in the Middle East and Africa, being promoted Captain.

Returning to Westminster Bank Metropolitan Control headquarters in 1946, between 1954 and 1960 Dibbs was secretary to bank chief general manager, Arthur Chesterfield CBE.^[3] He then gained three years' experience as a bank branch manager in Croydon, Surrey. In April 1963, after attending an advanced management programme at Harvard Business School, he was appointed assistant general manager in Northern Control, where he developed a reputation for getting to know his branch staff well and communicating with them personally. In 1966 he was promoted general manager of Metropolitan Control West. In 1968 Westminster Bank announced plans to merge with National Provincial Bank and its subsidiary District Bank to form National Westminster Bank. Dibbs was appointed general manager of the new bank's domestic banking division, and was responsible for completely reorganising the business following what was then the biggest merger in British banking history. In 1970, the year in which the merger took full effect, Dibbs was appointed deputy chief executive, and joined the board of directors. He became NatWest Group Chief Executive in May 1972 and served for five years before stepping down, having been promoted deputy chairman in 1977 serving until his retirement in 1982.

Also Joint Deputy Chairman of British Airways (1981–85), Dibbs chaired the MCC finance committee and served as President of Marylebone Cricket Club (for 1983/84).^[4] He was appointed CBE in 1983.^[5]

Family life

In 1948, he married (Helen) Pearl Mathewson (died 1995), eldest daughter of James Wallace Mathewson.

He and his wife lived at Tadworth, Surrey, and had two daughters.^[6]

See also

• NatWest Trophy