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= Kenneth Durham = Kenneth Durham (28 July 1924 - 17 February 2005) was a British physicist and businessman, best known for serving as Non-Executive director of British Aerospace, Chairman of Unilever PLC and Vice-Chairman of Unilever NV as well as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education
Kenneth Durham was born in Blackburn, Lancashire and was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. He served as an RAF bomber pilot during the Second World War before attending Manchester University to study Physics, where he won a Hatfield scholarship.

Sir Kenneth Durham was a keen golfer and an avid reader of military history.

Career
After graduating he worked briefly in the Atomic Research Establishment at Harwell before joining Unilever's Research at Port Sunlight in 1950 as a physicist. After attending the advanced management programme at Harvard, he became Unilever’s Head of Research in 1965.

In 1970 he was appointed Chairman of the UK Animal Feeds Group. A year later the main companies in this group, BOCM Limited and Silcock &amp; Lever Feeds Ltd, merged to become BOCM Silcock, with Durham as Chairman. In 1974 Durham moved to Head Office in London this year to take over as Chairman of the UK Committee and Animal Feeds Co-ordinator. Also this year he was appointed to the Boards of Unilever Ltd and Unilever NV. Two years later he was appointed to be a Trustee of the Leverhulme Trust Fund, to replace Lord Cole.

In 1977 he became Meat Products Co-ordinator and a year later he became Vice-Chairman of Unilever Ltd and member of the Special Committee.

In 1980 he was appointed Non-Executive director of British Aerospace. In 1982 he was appointed Chairman of Unilever PLC and Vice-Chairman of Unilever NV. His first major act as Chairman was to open a new extension of the Port Sunlight Laboratory, where he began his career at Unilever.

Sir Kenneth Durham was also Chairman of the Economic Development Committee for the food, drink and packaging machinery industries, and the Ministry of Agriculture's Priorities Board.

Durham also gave his time to many other trade and charitable bodies, including the British Shippers' Council, Help the Aged (for which he led a £6 million fund-raising campaign), and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

In 1989 he retired as Chairman of Kingfisher PLC (formerly Woolworths Holdings PLC).

He had a special interest in scientific training as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at whose inaugural meeting he condemned the apathy of society at large towards science and the failure of successive governments to promote research.