Frank Godbould Lee

Who was Frank Godbould Lee?

Sir Frank Godbould Lee KCB, CMG, PC was a British public servant and Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Lee was born on 26 August 1903 in Colchester, Essex to Joseph Lee and Florence née Brown.

He was educated at Brentwood School and Downing College, Cambridge where he read English. After Cambridge he joined the civil service in the Colonial Office where he stayed from 1926 until 1940. He then moved to the Treasury and was Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Food when he was knighted in January 1950. In 1951 he became Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, before eventually moving back to the Treasury and becoming Joint Permanent Secretary.

In 1958, he delivered the Stamp memorial lecture, on the subject of The Board of Trade, which was subsequently published as a monograph by The University of London.

On 2 October 1962 he was made a privy councillor.

He retired from the civil service in 1962 and was duly appointed Master of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, a post he held until his death in 1971.≥

The Frank Lee Leisure Centre in Cambridge is named in his honour.