An Impecunious Pilot: British Business Culture and the Case of Lowell Yerex, 1933-1946

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between a New Zealand-born entrepreneur, Lowell Yerex, and the British government. It will give particular attention to the role of British business culture in shaping the government’s response to Yerex. During the 1930s and l940s, Yerex built an important airline network in the Caribbean Basin. A British subject, he had an affinity for the empire. However, the British rebuffed his repeated efforts to form an alliance. While they had political, economic and strategic reasons for doing so, the British also manifested a disdain for Yerex because he did not measure up to their business ideals.