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Obituary - Stanley Grundy CBEStanley Grundy CBE, born on 27 April 1914, died on 7th March aged 91.Stanley was a creative and inventive businessman, an original thinker, full of drive and dynamism, who once seized of an idea would carry it through with total determination. In middle life he broadened his interest to good causes. As well as founding the National Back Pain Association, he set up a chess initiative which now boasts a million children playing chess in six commonwealth countries; gave a science block to Hampton School; was an active Rotarian and was President and later patron of the Twickenham Conservative Association. After leaving Hampton Grammar School he joined his uncle's architectural metal work business. At an early age he took control. He became an expert on working with metals. In the Second World War he worked on the production of Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft. Having found a way to weld aluminium he introduced aluminium beer barrels which replaced wooden casks in public houses, aluminium milk churns and aluminium trolleys for use in hospitals and schools. The Grundy Group of companies employed well over 3,000 people with an annual turnover in 1980 of £80 million. His philosophy is summed up in the Annual Report for 1975: “I do not go along with the commonly held belief that today’s business managers have but one objective – namely making large profits with little thought for their employees, their customers or the quality of their products. This is the unacceptable face of capitalism.” He motivated and rewarded hard work with welfare benefits, profit sharing and co-partnership. His was the first private company to have a Company Pension Scheme. Sturdily independent, Grundy refused ever to turn his private company into a public one as he did not wish to be answerable to shareholders. As his enterprises prospered, his interests broadened. In 1960 he set up the Stanley Grundy Trust which continues to this day to make grants to other charities. Then in 1968 he founded the National Back Pain Association. He had become aware of the vast amount of pain, suffering and time wasted through this affliction following his own back injury from a sailing accident in 1967. “I began to realise that very little seemed to be known about the treatment of back pain. There was no research
centre for backs, and as far as I knew there was no research of any importance being carried out either in
this country or elsewhere in the world and the medical profession knew almost nothing about the real cause of
back problems” he said.
The Back Pain Research Association was formed in August 1968 and registered as a medical charity. Initially progress was very slow not least because treatment for back problems in the medical field was shared between so many disciplines. In the early days the charity focused much of its efforts on persuading the various professions involved with the treatment of back pain to work together. This principle of a multi-disciplinary approach toward the treatment and management of back pain for which the charity lobbied was enshrined in the Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) report by the Department of Health in 1992. Furthermore, it became apparent that apart from research into the causes of back pain, a need existed for educating the general public in the ways of preventing and alleviating back pain. Stanley’s vision and determination were behind much of the work done by the charity over the last 38 years - from international seminars, the wide range of publications and especially the Guides to the Handling of Patients, the helpline (called a Counselling service when it was first set up in 1989), the network of branches providing local support for people living with chronic back pain and the website. Other charitable interest were inspired by his interest in the young. He was for many years a Governor of Hampton School and provided a science block it. Later Grundy became convinced that chess sharpens the minds of young children. He set up and founded a chess initiative, starting in Richmond, Twickenham and Hampton. As a result a million children now play chess in Canada, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, The Philippines and the United Kingdom. Grundy supported the arts through sponsoring numerous concerts of the Richmond Concert Society. He also supported the Hampton Choral Society. Stanley Grundy's interest in enterprise led him to involvement in local politics. From 1968 he served as President of the Twickenham Conservative Association, a post he held until 1994. Grundy had been awarded the CBE in June 1983 He had married Dora Hanwell at St Albans Church, Teddington in 1940. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last year. He died on 7th March 2006, survived by her, their daughter, three grand-daughters and two great-grand-children. All of us at BackCare will miss him greatly. | ||
