Horrors and standouts in the glory days

With regard to David Schlesinger's column on the grass always being greener the further it recedes into the past, clearly many people's memories are gilded by the setting sun. But what I noticed most from my nearly 42 years with Reuters was not so much that things were always better, but the superlative quality of some of those who rose to the summit. 

We certainly had horrors, either in executive or editorial management, who many journalists would consider unworthy of even being allowed to wheel round the tea trolley at 85 Fleet Street and other HQs. But there were also standouts who had so admirably earned their spurs through both reportorial genius and old-fashioned human decency, so missing in the company’s later iterations. 

Just a few from that summit (by no means exhaustive): Doon Campbell of D-Day and Gandhi assassination fame; Patrick Cross; Ranald MacLurkin; Jonathan Fenby; Michael Reupke; Ian Macdowall. ■