Lord Deedes

W. F. Deedes diesBy Nigel Reynolds

Lord Deedes, regarded by many as a national institution and the longest serving Daily Telegraph journalist, died last night aged 94.

The man who was a witness to many of the 20th century’s most important events, who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and edited The Daily Telegraph for 12 years, died at his home in Kent after a short illness.

W. F. Deedes was editor of The Daily Telegraph for 12 years

He had written his last column for the paper, comparing the horrors of Darfur to Nazi Germany, as recently as August 3.
After editing the paper Bill Deedes, as he modestly preferred to be known, enjoyed an Indian summer as a reporter and journalist for another 30 years, long after most men would have retired.
Combining his experience and compassion - particularly for the plight of Africa in his latter years - and blessed with the power to write with clarity and simplicity, he simply never stopped, still travelling widely well into his nineties - though he could never write enough for Daily Telegraph readers.
Baroness Thatcher, who had known him for more than 50 years, said tonight: “Bill was a dear friend who will be greatly missed. He had a uniquely distinguished career in politics and journalism.
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"He managed to appeal to new generations just as effectively as he did to earlier ones. I am deeply sorry at his passing.”
Jeremy Deedes, his son and the former managing director of this newspaper, said: “The Daily Telegraph was his great love and his dearest wish was to die in harness which happily is how it ended.”
Aidan Barclay, Chairman of the Telegraph Media Group, said: “Bill Deedes was a giant among men - a towering figure in journalism, an icon in British politics, and a humanitarian to his very core.
"He was part of the fabric of The Telegraph: in his passing, we have lost part of ourselves. We will not see his like again. Our thoughts are with his family, and his legion of friends."
Murdoch MacLennan, Chief Executive of Telegraph Media Group, said: “The sun has set on a remarkable life, lived very much for the benefit of others.
"Bill Deedes’ journalism enriched all those who read it; his selfless humanity touched us; his good humour and courage – even to the very end – inspired us. For all those in newspapers, it is difficult to imagine life without him.”
William Lewis, Editor of The Daily Telegraph, said: “It was a great honour and privilege to have worked with Bill Deedes. He was a wonderful inspiration - both as an outstanding journalist and as a human being whose wealth of experience and charity work will be very sadly missed."
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said: “Britain owes a huge debt of gratitude to the patriotism and public service given by Bill Deedes. He started writing as a professional journalist more than 78 years ago and few have served journalism and the British public for so long at such a high level of distinction, and with such a popular following.
“While he was an MP and also a Cabinet minister he will be remembered most as an outstanding and long serving editor of The Daily Telegraph and then a much read columnist. You could agree or disagree with his views but like so many others I found his writing fair minded, informed, and enlightening. Such was his commitment to public service that at the age of 85 he became an ambassador for Unicef - a post he also held with great distinction."



Memories of 1931 and a world we have lost - Telegraph

The world was in turmoil. Within days of my joining the Morning Post, Britain faced bankruptcy, Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government fell, and an all-party coalition under pressure from King George V was cobbled together to deliver us.
“Go and watch the crowds in Downing Street,” they told me. “Don’t write anything, old boy, just useful experience.”
So it was. I had never reported anything in my life. Why was I there? The Morning Post, feeling its age, had decided to recruit a few young reporters.
I was among them. It was three days before I got anything into the paper.
Late one evening, the deputy news editor handed me a small newspaper item reporting that the Indian Rope Trick had been performed at Cheltenham before the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
He instructed me to ring Jasper Maskelyne, the well-known conjuror and discuss it.
I trembled at the thought of inviting such a celebrity to talk to me but he was happy to explain at length why the trick was a myth.
My story appeared. I was “in”.
On a higher plane, the pound was devalued by 30 per cent and all public pay cut, leading to riots in London and a brief mutiny in the Navy at Invergordon, where ratings found themselves down to 25 shillings a week.
In the General Election of that October, an anxious nation gave the new coalition 554 seats and Labour just 56 seats.
For my miscellaneous duties during that one-sided event, the Morning Post awarded me £5 a week, good pay then for a young chap “on space”, which meant being paid only for copy that got into the paper.
Other sensations coloured that summer, such as a violent mutiny at Dartmoor prison, which I longed to cover.
More than any other event, it determined me to become the sort of reporter they might send on such a terrific story.
In weeks that followed, reporting duties required me to meet Gandhi – that story didn’t get in – and the Prince of Wales.
I travelled across the Drury Lane stage in the London bus that featured in Noël Coward’s Cavalcade, wrote stories about cat shows, Whipsnade Zoo, London fires and riots and the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud’s, where I volunteered to spend a night.
Nothing serious came my way until self-government for India became a big political issue in the early 1930s, and I was required to ferret out the divisions this created within the Tory party.
It led to encounters with Winston Churchill, who led Tory opposition to Indian reform, and his irascible son Randolph.
In their kindly way, senior staff at the Morning Post sometimes went through my copy with me, rather as tutors treat student essays, so replacing at least part of the university education I lost after my father got caught in the Wall Street crash of 1929.
For major events, such as the stunning Silver Jubilee of King George V, which I reported from the Mall, there was a seat in the stalls.
A modest man, the King was bewildered by the cheering.
After the marriage of Prince George, Duke of Kent to Princess Marina of Greece, a few of us joined their royal train to report cheering crowds that gathered at every station, as they travelled to Birmingham for the start of their honeymoon at Himley Hall.
Yes, those were different days