Elliott Merriam Viney
(1913-2002), Director at British Printing Corporation Ltd & Hazell, Watson & Viney LtdSitter in 2 portraits
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate film negative, 22 November 1966
NPG x176760
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate film negative, 22 November 1966
NPG x176761
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David Timms
10 January 2019, 15:35
Elliott Viney, DSO, MBE, TD, DL,
The eldest of four sons, he grew up in the family home in Walton Street and, after completing his education at University College, Oxford, he joined the company which was, for many years, to play a major part in his life,. Hazell Watson & Viney Limited
He called it, as so many did, simply Hazells.
Having joined the Territorial Bucks Battalion in 1932 (when his father, Col Oscar Viney was in command) and having commanded the Aylesbury ('B') Company from 1938, he was in command of the Bucks Battalion at its famous defence of Hazebrouk in May 1940, an action which was admired at the time even by the German Army, and for which he was awarded the DSO in 1945 (Distinguished Service Order).
Like many other Bucks Battalion men he spent nearly five years as a prisoner of war in Germany.
He was a member of the Diocesan Advisory Committee from 1979, a founder Trustee of the Bucks Historic Churches Trust, chairman of the Aylesbury Chamber of Commerce in the 1950s, a magistrate from 1950 and chairman of the Aylesbury bench for ten years up to 1982.
For 16 years he was president of the Aylesbury Orchestral Society and, in 1985 became president of an association which is unique to the town the Aylesbury Association for the Protection of Persons and Property.
He was a deputy lieutenant of the county from 1951 and High Sheriff of Bucks for the year from 1964, chairman of the Bucks Record Society in 1985, president of the Bucks Archaeological Society from 1979, founder chairman of the Aylesbury Centre of the National Trust, president of the Bucks CPRE from 1991, one time president of the Bucks County Show and field master of the Old Berkeley Beagles for nearly 25 years.
As well as being a governor of the Museum of London he was a president of the British Federation of Master Printers at one time and also Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers.