Background
George was born and grew up in Carshalton, the son of Alan, a Post Office clerk, and his wife Olive.
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George was born and grew up in Carshalton, the son of Alan, a Post Office clerk, and his wife Olive.
He attended the independent school Dulwich College on a scholarship. He attended and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
He carried out his National Service at the Joint Services School for Linguists, where he learnt to speak Russian. George joined the Bank of England in 1962. Apart from secondments to Moscow State University, the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, he remained there throughout his career.
After three years as Deputy Governor, he was appointed Governor of the Bank of England in 1993, succeeding Robin Leigh-Pemberton, now Lord Kingsdown, and retired on the completion of his second five-year term of office on 30 June 2003.
During the early part of his governance his successful relationship with the former Chancellor Ken Clarke gained for them the nickname of "the Ken and Eddie Show". Upon Labour coming to power the Bank was given independence in setting United Kingdom interest rates by Gordon Brown, the incoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.
He was succeeded as Governor of the Bank of England in July 2003 by Mervyn King. George attracted controversy in 1998 when he was widely reported to have made a statement to London newspaper executives implying that unemployment in the north of England was a price worth paying to preserve affluence in the south of the country.
He later claimed that his remarks had been misconstrued.
George served as a Governor of his former school, Dulwich College, between 1998 and 2008, and served as the Chairman of the Governors between 2003 and 2008. On 18 April 2009, George, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer.