Robert Dudley Best

Robert Dudley Best (1892–1984) was an English industrialist and designer active in the field of lighting. He inherited from his father the leadership of Best & Lloyd, a company founded in Birmingham in 1840 and, at the time, one of the world’s largest lamp manufacturers, whose products furnished legendary means of transport such as the Titanic and the Orient Express. Educated in Düsseldorf and specializing in metal design, Best came into contact in Germany with the founding principles of the Bauhaus, becoming a close friend of its founder Walter Gropius. It was precisely the Bauhaus aesthetic that inspired what would become his most famous creation, the Bestlite lamp (1930), considered the favorite lamp of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who kept one on the desk in his Whitehall office and was known to take it with him on his travels abroad. Deeply engaged in the cultural and civic life of his city, Best was also among the founders of the Common Wealth Party in 1942, a political movement aligned with libertarian socialist ideals. Today, the Bestlite lamp forms part of the permanent collections of many major museums worldwide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and is currently reissued by the Danish brand Gubi.