Sir Henry Bunbury

Sir Henry Bunbury Henry Noel Bunbury, K.C.B., died September 2, 1968, at his home in Ewell. His name will not be familiar to many members of the Society, but an older generation was honored to know him as friend and counselor. Sir Henry entered the Civil Service in 1900, after taking First Class Honors in Greats at Oxford. He served in the War Office, Exchequer, and Treasury between 1900 and 1912, and in the latter year was among a group of young civil servants chosen to set up the National Insurance Commission. He became accountant and comptroller general of the Commission, and was subsequently appointed a commissioner. In 1917 he became accountant general of the Ministry of Shipping. Three years later he was knighted and appointed comptroller and accountant-general of the Post Office, where he served until retirement. Bunbury was one of the founders, along with Lord Haldane, of what is now the Royal Institute of Public Administration. Throughout his life he was a serious and dedicated student of administration. In the 1930's he became deeply interested in national planning, and out of this interest came the organization of PEP (Political and Economic Planning) in London and his own publication on Governmental Planning Machinery. His best-known work is perhaps Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, a case study of the National Health Insurance Act of 1911 and the establishment of the National Insurance Commission, which was published in 1957. He had served as the director of the Czech Refugee Trust, and at the time of his death was president of the British Jugoslav Society and honorary president of the Royal Institute of Public Administration. Those who had an opportunity to walk along a part of the way with Sir Henry mourn the passing of a great administrator, a fine scholar, and a verray parfit gentil knyght. ROWLAND EGGER

Art · Political and Economic history of UK and US