May was the younger son of William May, a grocer and wine merchant, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and his wife Julia Ann Mole. On 15 October 1903, George May married Lily Julia Strauss Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (b 1887. D. 15 January 1955), the second daughter of Gustave Strauss, a wealthy Bohemian glass merchant of 2 West Bolton Gardens, Kensington, London.
He was educated at Cranleigh School.
At the age of 16, he joined the Prudential Assurance Company as a clerk. He was to remain with this firm until his retirement in 1931, serving as the Company Secretary from 1915 until 1931. May quickly made his mark as a financial expert.
During the First World War, he was Manager of the American Dollars Securities Committee from 1915 to 1918.
This committee was set up by the government to oversee the collection of securities held by British firms in the United States, and to make them available to the British government in aid of the war effort. Foreign his services, May was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918.
He was created a of the Eyot, on 27 January 1931. In 1931, after retiring as Secretary of the Prudential Assurance Company, he was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden to oversee a committee on national expenditure.
The majority report found that there was a prospective deficit of £120 million, and recommended savings of £96,578,000 for the next financial year, of which £66.6 million were to come from reductions in Unemployment Insurance and £13.6 million from cuts in education.
The chairman and the members suggested by the Conservative and Liberal parties supported the recommendations. Two members from the Labour Party submitted a minority report fundamentally disagreeing with the committee"s recommendations. In early 1932, May was appointed Chairman of the Import Duties Advisory Committee by the new Chancellor, Neville Chamberlain.
The committee oversaw the introduction and implementation of a general tariff over the next three years.
As one of three members on the committee (along with Sir Sydney Chapman and Sir Allan Powell), May was specifically responsible for overseeing the reorganisation of the British iron and steel industry. The committee"s activities were largely suspended after the outbreak of the Second World War, but May remained Chairman until 1941.
May was further honoured on 28 June 1935 when he was raised to the peerage becoming Baron May, of Weybridge in the County of Surrey. At the same time, he also became Lord May of Weybridge by virtue of his peerage and Lily Julia May became Lady.
