obituaries


Peggie Robinson Jack Abel


A journalist, mountaineer and yachtswoman – and bagpipe player – who worked for the Daily Express for some 45 years, has died, aged 97. Peggie Robinson, who was based in Sheffield, reported on everything from the Yorkshire Ripper to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Peggie was a lifetime member of the NUJ and


was discussing union and media news activities almost to the end. Among her souvenirs was a delegate’s pass to the national conference in April 1944, from when she was a 22-year-old reporter on the Shields Gazette in her home town of South Shields. This was only about two months before her father, a Merchant Marine captain, was killed when his ship was attacked after action supporting the D-Day landings. It may have been that personal tragedy that


drove her in later life to work tirelessly every year organising collecting teams for the Poppy Appeal – raising scores of thousands of pounds through her efforts. She was also a stalwart of the Labour Party and


attended both NUJ and party conferences. Peggie joined the Daily Express around the end of the war and, in 1946, transferred to Sheffield to cover Yorkshire. In her early working life, she was one of


the few women reporters on national newspapers and was particularly proud of her part in the fight for equal pay. Apart from covering the Ripper for several years – frustratingly missing his arrest because she was away on holiday – and the Troubles, she also reported on Britain’s Cod War with Iceland, pit tragedies and miners’ strikes, and was well known throughout Yorkshire. She was still contributing articles in the 1980s, and, for many years, she played the bagpipes in pipe bands in and around Sheffield. She died on May 4 in a city nursing home after a long spell of poor health. Peggie faced her failing health with the same


feisty, indomitable spirit that she showed throughout her life, whether she was chasing a story, skippering her off-shore racing yacht or climbing Alpine peaks, including the Matterhorn.


Clark Herron 24 | theJournalist


Jack Abel, a former photographer and picture editor of the Manchester Evening News (MEN), died on April 17. He would have been 95 on May 21. Jack’s career with the newspaper began shortly after his demob from the RAF in 1946 when he was given a month’s trial by editor Tom Henry. He was issued with an old Palmos plate camera that had pinholes in the bellows, resulting in fogged plates from almost every job he was sent on. His first job was a disaster and a somewhat shaky start for Jack. Things could only get better. After Jack completed the first month – with a different camera without pinholes in its bellows – Tom Henry called him into his office and told him that the first month had not been too bad and offered him another month’s trial. That was the beginning of Jack’s career with the newspaper. In 1969, the MEN asked Jack to set up a new company called Colour 061 of which he became director until he retired in the 1980s. Before he was made picture editor, he was a photographer and covered Manchester United games. He should have travelled with the team when they played Red Star Belgrade in 1958 but there weren’t enough seats on the plane so sports reporter Tom Jackson went alone. On the afternoon of February 6, Jack was in the office when news of the Munich plane crash disaster came through. Tom Jackson and eight of the Manchester United team and other journalists had been killed when their return flight crashed on take-off because of snow on the tarmac. Hours later, Jack and reporter Doug Slight were both on a flight to Munich to record the tragedy. Jack knew most of the players and officials and


his contacts proved useful to himself and the reporter. On the Sunday, they visited the crash site with two uninjured players, Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes. They searched the wreckage of the plane and picked up belongings that lay scattered about. Jack would later play a big part in the MEN’s football coverage and the build-up of the Manchester United team and the Busby Babes. Jack’s long life might have been cut tragically short but for the want of a seat on a plane.


Bill Batchelor


George Dowson


Northern sports journalism lost one of its best-known names when former Manchester Evening News and Sunday Mirror staffer George Dowson died aged 81 at his home in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on March 18. George was born in the City of Salford and


maintained a love of his native city all his life. A product of the city’s De La Salle College, George joined the weekly Salford City Reporter. After proving his ability as an enterprising sports journalist and a gifted headline writer, he joined the sports desk of the Manchester Evening News, rising to become deputy sports editor. George was recruited by the northern office of


the Sunday Mirror, where he took over the rugby league column from Eddie Waring, and was part of the sports desk sub-editing team. In 1977, he was promoted to deputy northern sports editor. The closure of the Mirror Group’s production


centre in Manchester in 1988 saw George return to the Manchester Evening News, where he became the chief rugby league columnist. He then joined Salford Reds Rugby League Club as media manager, a position he held until he retired in 2000. George played soccer for Salford City Boys as well


as cricket and rugby union to a creditable standard. He loved golf and, when his health prevented him from swinging a club, he took up bowls. He was uncompromisingly competitive: he didn’t give any quarter and expected none in return. There was far more to George than his sporting


prowess. An accomplished guitar player, he would belt out standards made popular by Frank Sinatra and others, and was a keen fan of jazz. He also enjoyed tackling the Daily Telegraph crossword. George and his wife Margaret moved to Tetbury in 2000. He was surrounded by his family. His three sons, grandchildren and great grandchildren were a major part of his and Margaret’s life. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014. At his funeral at in Bristol on April 11, he had a Manchester United-branded coffin, and wore a Salford Rugby League Club jersey and the tie of his beloved Honourable Order of Bass Drinkers.


John Huxley


More obituaries on the NUJ website: www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-obituaries


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