Peter Welbourn

I am so sorry to hear--only today, January 11 -- about the death of Peter Welbourn, who was a colleague --and something of a mentor--of mine in the seventies. When I joined the Daily Express as a junior industrial reporter in London in 1975 he was already the highly experienced, knowledgeable, shrewd, and unfailingly friendly Northern industrial correspondent of the Express. Instead of--as he might have done--treating a wet behind the years university graduate with disdain, he was consistently helpful and comradely in his --invariably--correc
t advice for which I shall always be deeply grateful. He was also possibly the most adept writer in popular newspapers i have ever met. I can remember once flailing around at a TUC Congress trying to think of an intro to a story about the white collar union union ASTMS planning to recruit soldiers--within nano-seconds Peter suggested: "By the left brothers, quick march!" --a start to the story for which quite unjustly I was given the credit--not that Peter, such a generous man, minded in the least. One of his favourite mantras "File by three; home for three" was a testament to his highly professional preference for early copy but belied the great--but unobtrusive--conscie
ntiousness with which he approached the job. It was a huge pleasure to work with him, and i learnt a great deal from him. My deep condolences to his loved ones. Donald Macintyre