Robert Dudley Best (1892–1984) was an industrial designer, famous for creating the Bestlite, the first iconic modern object in 1930s Britain. Born into a privileged Birmingham family, he and his brother wanted to be music hall entertainers, but were derailed―first by their industrialist father, R.H. Best, who wanted them to work in his lighting factory and insisted they study at Germany’s best art school, in Duesseldorf, and then by WW1, which only Robert survived.

 

Robert went on to pen an appreciation of his father’s business innovations, an unpublished history of design in the early the 20th century, and a memoir with recollections of F.M. Alexander, the posture therapist and guru.