Oakley, Charles Allan, 1900-1993, author and trade unionist,

Charles Allan Oakley was born in 1900 in Plymouth, where his father was prominent in the Admiralty Dockyard. Although his father died in 1916 he wanted his son to learn the trade of shipbuilding in a good yard, namely John Brown and Co. Ltd at Clydebank. Dr Oakley served his apprenticeship in Naval Architecture and subsequently won a scholarship to University of Glasgow . He graduated in 1923 with a BSc. However, the anticipated boom in shipbuilding did not occur, so John Brown's were unable to take him back. Instead he went to Aberdeen University for three years where he lectured in Educational Psychology.

Having become interested in the film industry at an early age due to his uncle selling films on the South coast of England, where he met an up-and-coming young film writer by the name of Alfred Hitchcock (indeed Hitchcock supposedly named a character in the 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt, after Oakley), Charles Oakley decided to head to Elstree Studio to try script-writing. He did not remain in England for long as a scriptwriter, but he retained his interest in the film industry: he was Secretary, and later Chairman, of the Scottish Film Council.

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