Hugh Pain

I worked with Hugh on the Business desk in 1993-94 and soon came to realise he was an incredibly warm and entertaining person. He had just recovered from his injuries in the former Yugoslavia but was always modest about what happened then. It was an eye opener to read Corinne’s account here that shows Hugh really went the extra mile, at great risk to himself, out of concern for his colleagues. I shall mostly miss his humour that came in subtle forms. I am still to this day unsure whether he was joking when he told me that his real name was Humphrey. With a straight face, he told me that he’d been named Hugh by an editor at the BBC, who thought it sounded better on-air. Left unsaid was the fact that his new name sounded quite like Huge Pain. ■