Gilbert Sedbon

In December 2007, Gilbert Sedbon’s sons Eric and Thierry threw a surprise party to celebrate his 90th birthday. Several colleagues who had served many years with him were invited, from left to right David Lawday, Julian Nundy, Jonathan Fenby, Gilbert Sedbon, Tony Winning and Bernard Edinger.

Gilbert was a lovely man, always passionate about getting the story and a consummate reporter. Many indelible memories of working with him in my two stints in Paris bureau (1969-72 and again 1975-78). A couple come to mind: we covered General de Gaulle’s funeral together at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in November 1970. The village was heaving with thousands of people milling about, including a contingent of presidents from former French African colonies. There was an atmosphere of mild hysteria in the air, heightened by the histrionic behaviour of President (later Emperor) Bokassa of the Central African Republic, who threw himself wailing onto the general’s grave. It was virtually impossible to get about, due to the huge, emotional crowd. 

But Gilbert managed it, no problem. I was stationed in the corner of the French PTT press caravan, guarding the open phone line to Paris - crucial in the days before iPhones and WiFi. Gilbert kept re-appearing from the melee to feed me nuggets of information he had somehow gleaned from the heaving mass of humanity. As we stitched the story together and phoned it through to Paris bureau, we became conscious of a presence behind us. We turned to find four of Fleet Street’s finest, notebooks deployed, writing down everything we were dictating to Paris. When we remonstrated, the reply came: “Well, we own Reuters, don’t we!” They did buy us a few beers when it was all over. 

Another time, in the old rue du Sentier office which we shared with several other news organisations, Gilbert had filed one of his numerous scoops about Mirage fighter jet sales to some country or other. The extremely pompous correspondent of a well known London paper, irritated after receiving a call back, came in to read Gil’s story and remarked in a loud, sneering tone: “Oh, I’ll have to knock this one down...” But Gilbert got the last laugh. His scoop was officially confirmed a few days later. 

What a reporter. What a man. So glad I knew him. ■