[2] When he returned from Palestine, he learnt Russian at London University and trained to be an interpreter, working thereafter in GCHQ and Germany, before leaving the Army in 1952.
As the Times summarised, Tidbury's work at the top-tier of this re-organisation "helped to steer Whitbread through a difficult period for both the company and the industry as a whole".
This new management plan saw overall sales increase, but meant 1,800 jobs were cut and several breweries closed, decisions which, according to the Times, were not easy for Tidbury, who as "a member of the old school [who] always adhered to rather paternalistic principles of loyalty ... [he] knew his pubs and his people.
In 1986, he was asked by Sir Geoffrey Howe to be Chairman of the William and Mary Tercentenary Trust, which would raise money and organise celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Two years later, two intruders (Pearse McAuley and Nessan Quinlivan) were spotted in the garden of Tidbury’s house by an armed police protection team.
They were later arrested at Stonehenge in Wiltshire by a police armed response unit and subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder him, although they escaped prison before their trial.