GEDDES, SIR ERIC CAMPBELL, G.C.B., 1919 (1875 '937), British man of business and administrator, born in India on Sept. 26, 1875, was the son of Auckland Campbell Geddes of Edinburgh, and the elder brother of Sir Auckland Geddes. He was educated at the Oxford Military college and Merchiston Castle school, Edinburgh. He gained some business experience at lumbering in the United States, and was afterwards connected with railways—first, the Baltimore and Ohio system, and then the Rohilkhand and Kumaton in India. Returning to England he joined the North Eastern Railway Co. under Sir George Gibb, and, having succeeded him in 5906, was himself the general manager of this line when the World War broke out.
Geddes was one of the business men whom Lloyd George, on becoming Minister of Munitions, enlisted in Government employ. He became deputy director general of munitions supply, 1915-16, and was then appointed, though a civilian, director general of transportation, and succeeded in bringing the British lines of communication in France into a high state of efficiency. He was transferred to the Admiralty in May, 1917, as controller, in order to develop and utilize the whole of the shipbuilding re sources of the country and concentrate them under one authority. A month or two later, in spite of having no parliamentary experi ence, he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, and was re turned to the House of Commons as M.P. for the borough of Cambridge. After the Armistice Geddes was employed on ques tions connected with demobilization. When the Government was reconstructed in Jan., 1919, he left the Admiralty in order to organize and preside over a new Ministry of Transport. In 1921 a bill introduced by Geddes for the re-grouping of the railways was passed; he then resigned office in Oct., and the ministry was reduced in personnel and importance. Sir Eric himself was ap pointed in Aug., 1921, chairman of a small committee, later known as the "Geddes Axe," to recommend public economies to the Government. In various reports in the winter of 1921-22 the committee recommended savings amounting to L86,000,000; but Sir Eric complained that only £52,000,000 of this amount was actually saved. In 1922 he left Parliament and returned to a business career, becoming chairman of the Dunlop Rubber Co. and of Imperial Airways, Ltd. He died on June 22, 1937.