Lester Suffield
 Lester Suffield  (arms dealer) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1911 |
| Died | 1999 (Age 88) |
| Nationality | British |
"The [UK] government's chief arms salesman" | |
Sir Lester Suffield was a head of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Sales Organisation who admitted in a 1978 corruption case that Millbank Technical Services and the MoD had offered payments to government officials.[1]
Career
Suffield left school at 15 to work for London and North Eastern Railways before he started selling cars for Morris Motors, building a career in America and Canada. By 1968 he had become sales director for British Leyland, moving on to the DSO a year later. He told the BBC that flogging arms was just the same as flogging cars: he did not consider the moral consequences.
Originally appointed in 1969 to be the government's chief arms salesman for only two years, Suffield was persuaded to stay on until 1976. He was knighted in 1973 for his efforts. He died in 1999.[2]
