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.

Dr Oakley returned to Glasgow to lecture in Industrial Psychology at the University. During World War Two Dr Oakley was employed by the Air Ministry under Lord Beaverbrook as the Scottish Officer for Production. Aside from his academic career, Dr Oakley had strong links with industry through the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. He was also linked with university and college developments in Glasgow and was the Honorary President of the former Glasgow Polytechnic. Dr Oakley was twice nominated for the St Mungo Prize which was awarded every third year to someone who had done most for the good of the city, by making it more beautiful, healthier or more honoured. Dr Oakley had a wide variety of interests as can be seen from many of his achievements: being involved in the opening of the Cosmos, a theatre that showed Continental films; attending the founding of the Citizens Theatre; founding the Glasgow University Dance Band and starting a popular brand of tinned soup called Jean MacGregor's.

He also wrote and had published a number of articles and cartoons under pen-names like the Chiel and the Gauger . He wrote his famous book The Second City in 1946 . He was married to Agnes Stewart, a medical graduate from Glasgow University and a distinguished gynaecologist. They had one daughter, Caroline, also a doctor who is married to Professor James McKillop, a specialist in Nuclear Medicine at Glasgow University. Dr Oakley died in April 1993 .

From the guide to the Papers of Charles Allan Oakley, 1900-1993, Lecturer in Industrial Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, c1900s-1983, (Glasgow University Archive Services)