John Grierson (1898-1972 ), a documentary film producer, was born in 1898 in Kilmadock, Perthshire, Scotland, where his father was the local school headmaster. Grierson studied for a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Glasgow. After lecturing at Durham University he spent a period in America studying the effects of the media on public opinion, and it was there, in 1925 , he first coined the term documentary. He returned to Britain in 1927 and, after joining the Empire Marketing Board in 1928 , he produced a pioneering documentary film about herring fishing, Drifters (1929 ), which was shown at the premier of Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin in London. From 1933 he was head of the British G(eneral) P(ost) O(ffice) Unit where they produced hundreds of short films including the famous Night Mail, with a verse voice over by Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973 ). Grierson moved to Canada just before the start of the Second World War and there established the National Film Board of Canada. In 1945 he returned to America, forming The World Today, which produced films promoting international understanding. From 1946-1948 he was Director of Mass Communications for UNESCO and from 1948-1950 he was the film controller at the Central Office of Information in London. From 1957-1965 he produced an international range of documentary films for television and was host of This Wonderful World.
