Iliffe was the son of William Isaac Iliffe (1843–1917), a printer and
Justice of the Peace, of
Allesley near
Coventry. His father, associated with
Henry Sturmey, founded early publications on the motor industry and cycling. His father also founded the
Coventry Evening Telegraph, which Edward began working on at age 17. After his father died in 1917, he and his brother expanded the business and Edward ultimately became president and the principal proprietor of the
Birmingham Post and the
Birmingham Mail and owner of the
Coventry Evening Telegraph and the
Cambridge Daily News. Iliffe was also Chairman of Iliffe & Sons, a Director of London Insurance and a Member of
Lloyd's as well as Deputy Chairman of
Allied Newspapers Ltd. He was also part owner of
The Daily Telegraph together with
Lord Camrose and
Lord Kemsley (a partnership dissolved in 1937). Iliffe was knighted in 1922. On 22 June 1933 he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Iliffe, of
Yattendon in the County of
Berkshire, where he lived at Yattendon Court. He worked with the Association of the
British Chambers of Commerce for many years and was the president of the association in 1932. During the Second World War, he served as chairman of the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and St John Appeal and helped raise more than £50 million, for which he was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1946. Iliffe also served as president of the Trustees of the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre,
Stratford-upon-Avon, from 1933 to 1958, and president of the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain from 1945 to 1959. In 1937, Iliffe donated
Allesley Hall and the surrounding acreage to the
Coventry City Council.
Personal life Iliffe married
Charlotte Gilding, daughter of Henry Gilding, in 1902, and they had two sons and a daughter. He died in July 1960 in London, aged 83, and was succeeded in the barony by his son,
Langton. ==References==