Lilian Bennett

She was born Lilian Margery Barnett on 22 August 1922 at 8 Dunsmure Road, Stamford Hill, London, the eldest of four daughters of Maurice Sidney Barnett, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Sophia Barnett, née Levy. [2] Her mother's father was the Rev Jacob Baer Levy, a United Synagogue minister.[2]

She was educated at West Ham secondary school, Brentwood School (although it was a boys' school), and in 1941, won a scholarship to study medicine at London's Royal Free Hospital, but did not take her place, as she started a business career instead.[2][3]

In 1942, she started work in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, for a plastic aircraft component manufacturer, Thermo-Plastics Ltd, as an office junior, rising to sales and marketing manager in 1945, and sales director in 1957.[2]

In 1968, she joined Manpower, as the marketing director of its UK operations.[2][3] She became general manager of operations, and then a main board director in the early 1970s, with "responsibility for strategic planning and business development".[2] In 1990, she became chairman and chief executive of Manpower UK in 1990, and retired in 1998.[2][1]

She was appointed OBE in 1993 for "services to employment".[2]

On 2 November 1952, she married Ronald Bennett (1925–1974), a businessman and photographer, and they had one son, Jonathan.[2]

Bennett died on 12 August 2013 at her home in Wimbledon, London, and was survived by her son.[2]