Harold Creighton

{{Short description|British businessman}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Harold Digby Fitzgerald Creighton | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|09|11|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|06|03|1927|09|11|df=yes}} | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | monuments = | other_names = | alma_mater = | occupation = Industrialist, magazine proprietor | years_active = | employer = | organization = | known_for = Proprietor and editor of ''The Spectator'' | style = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = Harriet Wallace | partner = | children = Four | parents = | relatives = | module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes | allegiance = {{Flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{army|United Kingdom}} | service_years = | rank =2nd lieutenant | unit =Royal Armoured Corps | awards = }} }} '''Harold Digby Fitzgerald Creighton''' (11 September 1927 – 3 July 2003) was a British businessman and machine tool pioneer, who bought ''The Spectator'' magazine in 1967 for £75,000.<ref name="Times">{{Cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1151035.ece|title=Harold Creighton Obituary|work=The Times|date=July 14, 2003|access-date=January 17, 2011}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In 1947, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38130|page=5576|date=21 November 1936}}</ref> in the Royal Armoured Corps and served in Egypt and the Far East. After completing his National Service, he joined a tin-smelting business in Malaya (now known as Malaysia) and returned to Britain, where he eventually became Chairman of the ''Scottish Machine Tool Corporation of Glasgow''.

In 1967, bought ''The Spectator'', a politically conservative, weekly magazine. In 1973, he took over as editor although he had no prior experience as a journalist, after sacking the incumbent editor, George Gale. He edited the magazine until 1975, when he sold it for £75,000 to Henry Keswick. During his tenure, the magazine fervently opposed British entry into the European Economic Community.<ref name="Telegraph">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1435493/Harold-Creighton.html|title=Harold Creighton Obituary|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=July 8, 2003|access-date=January 17, 2011}}</ref>

==Education== Creighton was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), at Hertford Heath, near to the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire.

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-media}} {{succession box | before=George Gale | title=Editor of ''The Spectator''| years=1973 – 1975 | after=Alexander Chancellor }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creighton, Harold}} Category:People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Category:1927 births Category:2003 deaths Category:English magazine editors Category:The Spectator editors Category:Royal Armoured Corps officers Category:20th-century British Army personnel