W. J. Reader

For other people named William Reader, see William Reader (disambiguation).

William Joseph Reader (20 November 1920 – 5 June 1990)^[1] was an English historian who specialised in British company history. Theo Barker described him as "the foremost British company historian of his day".^[1]

Life

Born in Weston-super-Mare, Reader attended Taunton School before going up to Jesus College, Cambridge to read history.^[1] During the Second World War he served in the Royal Signals Corps.^[1]

Reader worked at Unilever in advertising, market research and public relations roles from 1950 to 1964.^[2] He left the company to become a freelance historian, and went on to write well-received histories of Imperial Chemical Industries, Grand Metropolitan and Weir Group, among others.^[2]