Gilbert Sedbon

I was alone in the office in the Rue Reaumur one Saturday afternoon in early 1975. This was normally a very dull shift, but Aristotle Onassis was in the American Hospital in Neuilly. Dying, as it happened, from complications of myasthenia gravis. A doctor friend of mine had assured me this was incurable, but the subs in London had cut the “incurable” from my copy, presumably on the basis that the Onassis millions might pull him through.

His presence was a damned nuisance, because the hospital were saying very little and the world’s press were saying whatever they liked. Jackie O smuggled in to the bedside, new wills, old loves, you name it.

To cap it all there was a stream of service messages from London demanding matchers for whatever fiction was emerging from the early editions of the London Sundays.

I was stuck.

Then in walked Gilbert, probably to pick up an office copy of the FT, for which he had an unaccountable and enduring passion.

I was in awe of Gilbert, having taken copy from him in English and in French, while remaining unconvinced that either was his native language.

I explained my predicament - no relevant contacts or leads, world’s press unconstrained by verifiable sourcing, huge story, ML career up creek.

Gilbert said he’d make a few calls, and stabbed out a number. There followed a torrent of extremely fluent and presumably persuasive Greek. He scribbled notes, made another call, more Greek, more notes.

My admiration reached new heights - I’d worked with Gilbert for more than a year and now he turned out to be completely fluent in a language I didn’t know he spoke, just when the occasion demanded.

The Nightlead-Onassis was cobbled together with credible sources, all thanks to Gilbert, none to me.

I remain grateful to him for that, and dozens of other acts of spontaneous kindness.

But I never asked him what was his strongest language - perhaps Arabic or the Italian I never heard him speak?

He was a wonderful man and a better journalist than I could have dreamed of becoming. ■