Daniel Pettit

Liverpool-born Daniel Pettit attended Quarry Bank High School, the future alma mater of Beatle John Lennon, until 1934 and played football for the youth teams of both Liverpool and Everton and for Everton Reserves. He was accepted into Cambridge University reading history and was a four time Cambridge football Blue captaining the side in 1937-38. Iit was whilst a student that he was picked to play for the British team at the Berlin Olympic Games being a late replacement for Moor Green’s half-back Tom Leek. He played in the first round match against China but due to an injury he could not playwas not picked for the quarter-final tie against Poland. Pettit went on the Corinthians’ tour of Denmark and Germany in April 1936 and won an amateur cap against Wales. When back in Liverpool he started playing for Northern Nomads. After graduating from Cambridge he worked as a school teacher at Highgate School, North London until the outbreak of war. From 1940-46 he served in the Royal Artillery in Africa, India and Myanmar and left the army with the rank of major.

Pettit joined the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever in 1948 and embarked on a successful business career. He became chairman of SPD, a Unilever subsidiary before leaving to become chairman of the National Freight Corporation, a post he held for a decade. Pettit also served as a director of Lloyds Bank and in 1974 was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to British trade and industry. He lived in Worcestershire from the 1970s.