(1942–46) and of the Council of Law Society (1938–50). Afterwards After the war, Vickers had a successful career in management and administration before becoming a prolific writer and speaker on the subject of social systems analysis and the complex patterns of social organisation. He wrote many books including The Art of Judgement, Freedom in a rocking Boat and Human Systems are Different. He introduced the concept of 'Appreciative Systems' to describe human activity. His work was taken up by researchers at the Open University in particular. From 1946 to 1948 he was also first Legal Advisor to the National Coal Board. At the time of creation on 1 January 1947 when some 750,000 workers from 800 different private companies became part of the largest employer in the western world where he worked alongside E. F. Schumacher. Afterwards he became a member of National Coal Board in charge of manpower, training, education, health and welfare (1948–55). From 1952 until 1960 he was member of the Medical Research Council and was chairman of the Research Committee of Mental Health Research Fund from 1951 to 1967. In 1977 he was president of the Society for General Systems Research, now the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Between 1955 and 1958 he took part in the 'Round Table on Man and Industry', a project sponsored by the School of Social Work at the University of Toronto, the conclusions of which were published in The Undirected society. On the inside jacket cover he muses 'The Industrial band-wagon rolls ever faster onwards, remaking the world we live in and with it ourselves. Are we in the driving seat or merely passengers – or even under the wheels? What part does human decision making play in directing or controlling the process?'. His second wife, and close companion, died in 1972. His manuscripts for 'Western Culture and Systems Thinking' and 'Autonomy and Responsibility' were constantly rejected for publication. In 1977 he moved to a retirement home, on the same street in Goring-on-Thames on which he had lived for many years. Geoffrey died in 1982; however, the influence for his work is still alive. The International Society for the Systems Sciences presents the Sir Geoffrey Vickers Memorial Award each year in his memory. His military medals were left to the Sherwood Foresters Collection and are on display in Nottingham Castle. His papers relating to systems thinking are archived at