John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson (April 14, 1910 - January 31, 1993) was a British architect and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out was Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling. Poulson served a jail sentence, but continued to protest his innocence, claiming that he was "a man more sinned against than sinning".

Family and early life

Poulson came from a strict Methodist family and inherited a strong faith which stressed the importance of self-help. He did badly at school and at Leeds College of Art but nevertheless was articled to a Pontefract firm of architects, Garside and Pennington. He left to start his own Architecture practice with financial backing from his father. He never became a formally qualified architect, because as he later claimed "I was too busy to complete my examinations". Poulson soon began to cultivate contacts in the local borough council and officials at the larger West Riding county authority. Work soon began to arrive and Poulson told friends that he was "on his way". Poulson also became politically involved with the National Liberals, although never let political differences stop him from making friends who were in charge of commissioning public buildings.

Post-war business

Poulson obtained a medical exemption from wartime service in 1939. The same year he married Cynthis Sykes whose sister Lorna was married to Lord King of Wartnaby. He was thus well placed to expand his business throughout the wartime years. World War II He was a workaholic and demanded the same commitment from his staff, dismissing staff who would not work his way. He had his own firm build him a house called 'Manasseh' at a cost of PS60,000, helped by building contractors donating services for free in the hope of getting contracts in the future. The house won the 'Ideal Homes' House of the Year competition in 1958. When Poulson's problems caught up with him in later life, he sold the house to a young couple for just over half the build cost.

Poulson revolutionised the accepted architectural method of completing a design then handing it over for costing, planning and building. He developed a combined architecture and design practice, an all-in-one service which employed all the separate disciplines in integrated teams. This approach facilitated the development process and reduced costs. In the post war years Poulson's business boomed and by the sixties was one of the largest in Europe at the time. He was later to admit that the practice expanded "beyond my wildest dreams" and offices were opened in London, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Beirut and Lagos.

Local authorities

In 1958 the National Liberal MP Sir Herbert Butcher advised his friend Poulson to set up a servicing company to win business for his architect's practice. Poulson established Ropergate Services Ltd., named after the street in Pontefract where he was based. This company also had the advantage of reducing Poulson's tax liability considerably. The late 1950s saw a building boom as Britain had finally shaken off post-war austerity and many local authorities embarked on major building schemes. Notable among them was Newcastle upon Tyne where dynamic leader T. Dan Smith wanted to set his mark on the city.

Smith's desire to redevelop Newcastle attracted the attention of the construction firm Bovis which had worked for Poulson. Bovis' managing director suggested formalising links and in February 1962 Smith was appointed as a consultant to the Poulson organisation. This connection was extremely valuable to Poulson as Smith had a network of contacts among other authorities in the north-east, many of which were also recruited as Poulson consultants. Smith's involvement with the Labour Party reassured many Labour councillors wary of dealing with someone involved in the Conservative-allied National Liberals.

Poulson also found a useful contact in Andrew Cunningham, a senior figure in both the General and Municipal Workers Union and the Labour Party in north east England. Some of Poulson's largest residential blocks were built in Cunningham's home town of Felling, County Durham. Cunningham would later go to jail for his dealings with the architect.

Nationalised industries

Poulson was also in a good position to win work for the nationalised industries, partly due to his having offered gifts to many civil servants when they were relatively junior and calling upon them for a return of gratitude years in the future. As an example Poulson had met Graham Tunbridge, a railway employee, during the war. After the nationalisation of British Rail Tunbridge became estates surveyor for its Eastern Region and sent Poulson several contracts for modernisation of station-master's homes. When Tunbridge became Estates and Rating Surveyor for BR Southern Region, Poulson moved on to contracts at Waterloo station, Cannon Street station and East Croydon station. In return, Poulson had at first supplied Tunbridge with PS25 weekly, and later loaned him a Rover car.

Another productive contact was Scottish Office civil servant George Pottinger, who in the late 1950s was put in charge of a PS3 million redevelopment of Aviemore as a winter sports complex. Poulson gave Pottinger gifts worth over PS30,000 over six years, and was appointed by Pottinger as architect in charge of the Aviemore project. Pottinger also had a degree of political knowledge and skill which Poulson lacked and drafted political speeches for the "architect".

Poulson's connections with the National Liberals began to give him political advancement in the early 1960s. He was Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Liberal Council from 1961 and frequently hosted National Liberal events in London at which he met senior government ministers, where Pottinger's speeches were impressive. He also made contact with the Labour MP Albert Roberts, for whom Poulson designed a house (free of charge). Roberts had useful contacts with the Portuguese government and was offered a consultancy by Poulson at PS2,500 per annum.

Overseas work

Poulson was increasingly interested in obtaining commissions outside Britain in the mid-1960s. This required making more contacts. The Conservative MP John Cordle had extensive contacts in West Africa and after helping on several small contracts, in 1965 became a consultant to Poulson at PS1,000 per annum. However, Cordle's approaches to governments in Nigeria, The Gambia and Libya proved unfruitful. Cordle unwisely wrote a letter outlining everything he had done for Poulson, which was ultimately to doom his Parliamentary career.

Maudling

Another contact was the then Shadow Commonwealth Secretary Reginald Maudling, whom Poulson knew from his National Liberal activities. Maudling was anxious to build up a business career to keep up his income and Poulson needed a big name as Chairman of one of his companies, Construction Promotion. In 1966 Maudling accepted an offer to be Chairman for PS5,000 per annum. In addition, Maudling's son Martin, who had left Oxford University without taking a degree, went to work for another Poulson company. Poulson agreed to donate large sums of money to a charity patronised by Maudling's wife.

In return, Maudling helped to bring pressure on the government of Malta to award a PS1.5 million contract for the new Victoria Hospital on Gozo to Poulson. In Parliament, Maudling vociferously opposed the plans of the Labour government to reduce the amount of defence spending and number of UK troops on Malta. He traded on the goodwill this created to bring extra pressure, and also changed Conservative Party policy so that overseas development assistance to Malta would be 75% grant and 25% loan instead of the even split which the Labour government had introduced.

Financial trouble

Poulson's business model was initially highly successful and, at its apogee, was making an annual turnover of PS1 million; he himself admitted to being a millionaire. However, it was consuming more contract work than was becoming available, and Poulson resorted to tackling these difficulties by bribing and corrupting local councillors, local authority officials and civil servants at all levels. This was an expensive strategy and Poulson later estimated that he "gave away" about PS500,000 in the last few years of his involvement in the business.

As part of his attempts to get noticed, Poulson had become a local Commissioner of Taxes. However his own tax payments were seriously in deficit by the mid-1960s, mainly due to his extravagance on consultancies and gifts. In January 1968 the Inland Revenue finally decided to sue Poulson; on 18 November 1968 they obtained judgment in their favour for PS211,639. Poulson struggled on, but in June 1969 his staff confronted him with the fact that he was approaching bankruptcy. He attempted to recoup cash he had poured into subsidiary companies, which alerted his consultants that all was not well. Maudling and his son quietly resigned in November 1969.

On 31 December 1969 Poulson was formally removed from control of J.G.L. Poulson and Associates. On 9 November 1971 he filed his own bankruptcy petition revealing debts of PS247,000. The bankruptcy hearings in Spring 1972 were assisted by Poulson's meticulous record-keeping which detailed his payments and gifts. Poulson's generosity drew the comment from Muir Hunter QC during the bankruptcy proceedings that "in fact, Mr Poulson, you were distributing largesse like Henry VIII". The bankruptcy hearing also revealed Poulson's love for a lavish lifestyle and his penchant for rubbing shoulders with senior figures in the establishment. This desire to show his financial superiority over others only served to highlight his true character as a lonely, friendless and insecure person. Interestingly, one of Poulson's biggest creditors was the Inland Revenue to which he owed around PS200,000. Whilst the Revenue were pressing Poulson for payment of this amount, he was himself presiding over debt hearings in Wakefield in his role as a Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

It swiftly became apparent that Poulson was at the centre of a massive corruption scandal, and in July 1972, the Metropolitan Police began an investigation for fraud. This precipitated the resignation of Reginald Maudling, then Home Secretary and notionally in charge of the police.