Robert Warren:Tributes to outgoing chairman flood in
7/01/2009
An appreciation by Tom Crone
Bob Warren died on January 6, one week after his 73rd birthday, and just six days after completing 45 years on the News of the World and his two-year term as chairman of The Journalist' Charity. The Screws has lost its most formidable champion, the Journalists Charity a great leader. And his family and everyone else lucky enough to have spent time in his company have lost a loved and loyal friend.
A Sussex man through and through, Bob was born the third of four sons to an Arundel GP. During the Second World War Bob was evacuated to the Lake District, where he spent several years as one of just a few young boys at the relocated Huyton College for girls. Bob was never heard to describe this as an unpleasant experience and it may do much to explain his enjoyment and ease in the company of ladies - and theirs in his.
He completed his education at Lancing College in Sussex and after a spell as a junior Latin teacher in a local school he embarked upon National Service in the Royal Navy. Two years before the mast - a time he looked back on with pride - saw him rise to the dizzy height of lieutenant. It was entirely understandable, given his former rank, his elegant demeanour and his amusing tales of life in the Senior Service, that in recent years he was widely and fondly known as "The Admiral", a soubriquet he enjoyed.
After the Navy, Bob chose not to follow his father's path into medicine, which some around him had expected, but elected instead to try his hand at journalism. A short spell on the Coventry Evening Telegraph was followed by two years on the Montreal Star. Life as a front-line reporter covering some of Canada's remoter areas was not always easy. Among other obstacles, he found that numerous areas on his patch were "dry", a level of temperance with which neither young nor old Warren was ever entirely comfortable.
But it was there in Nova Scotia that Bob met and married Madeline. Beautifully matched, they were to enjoy 46 years of happy marriage.
They returned together to England in 1963 and Bob took up occasional employment with the mighty News of the World, then owned by the Carr family and selling eight million copies each Sunday. On January 1 1964 he was offered a job on a staff he was never to leave. He quickly progressed to deputy news editor under the great Charlie Markus and then to news editor, where he remained - running the most formidable news operation in popular journalism - for more than 20 years, a stupendous feat unlikely ever to be matched.
During that period Bob Warren masterminded countless great scoops that helped guaranteed the News of the World's unassailable position as the world's biggest-selling English language newspaper. He also gave a start in newspapers to dozens of young reporters who went on to become great names in the national newspaper world known then, and now, as Fleet Street.
His bond with the paper remained unbroken beyond the customary age of retirement. As executive editor he became responsible for dealing with any editorial problems that might interrupt the smooth running of the newspaper he loved. In 2002, the News of the World held its own version of the British Press Awards, called The Real Press Awards, in which it presented Bob with a lifetime achievement award for his "40 years at the top".
He also became a tireless worker for the Newspaper Press Fund, soon to renamed The Journalists' Charity, and was elected chairman at the beginning of 2007. His affability and "soft sell" approach enabled him to instigate far-reaching changes in a body that had been dragged almost reluctantly into the twentieth century and was still tending to squeal a little at radical thinking. Shouting or table thumping wasn't Bob's style. Adjournment to a local hostelry and a glass of a few of fine claret were usually the road to achieving the programme of development that has ensured the level and quality of support for journalists in need continues to improve.
And still his extraordinary energy was not spent. The "Admiral" announced he was happy and proud to accept a demotion when asked to be the Press Golfing Society's Captain for 2008/2009. As a teenager, Bob had enjoyed an occasional knock around Goodwood's panoramic golf course and returned to the game through the PGS only in the mid-1990s. It was a lasting love affair, although - following the philosophy he adopted in many areas of life - Bob saw golf simply as a healthy and scenic way to enjoy the company of friends old and new. Not for him the disputatious business of strenuous competition, or striving to reduce his handicap. The odd topped ball never produced a curse, nor did a shank ever annoy him. Indeed he was never heard to curse or ever seemed truly to be annoyed, either with golf or anything else.
Playing alongside him, you could not fail to enjoy his whimsical musings on the more unusual fauna and flora encountered on the course - he was a keen allotment-keeper - as well as the anecdotal trip through his lifetime of famous editors and great news stories. Only an unbreakable commitment elsewhere and, during the three months before his death, serious illness prevented him attending a PGS day and whenever possible he signed up for the Society's overseas tours and travelled to support its Wryter Cup team in competition with French journalists. Often playing towards the back of the field at our monthly golf days, he would eventually appear in the bar, ruddy-cheeked and bright-eyed to comment, if asked, that his round had been "great fun", to ask who wanted a drink and heartily applaud whoever took the trophy.
The Admiral won just one cup during his years as a member of the PGS: the Vic Woodman Trophy awarded to him at the end of the 2007 Wryter Cup Match on the Isle of Man for his "enthusiasm, friendship and unswerving loyalty" to the PGS team. Yes, Robert, gave us all of those things and much more. We will miss him terribly.
Testimony to the huge esteem in which he was held is the torrent of tributes that flooded in upon news of his death. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, leader of the Opposition David Cameron and News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch led the way and seven of Bob's former editors and countless former colleagues also took time to pen their own personal memories and impressions of working with a man many of them describe as a legend.
Bob is survived by Madeline and their children, Angela and Charles.