Hugh Pain

Very sorry to hear of Hugh’s death. I was just a fresh-faced London equities sub when I first met Hugh back in 1987. He had written a feature on escaping Kabul on a Soviet cargo aircraft under fire from the Mujahideen. This made quite an impression on me, stuck as I was with the Bombay stock market report and half year profits at Dixons. That piece and other first person account summed up what journalism was supposed to be about, and a few months later when I was introduced to him at 85 Fleet Street, I told him so. He was quite self-deprecating about it then, and I think he always was. He remained a funny and cheerful colleague, even when a decade later he and I met again, this time both under the yoke of subbing market reports. I won’t say he never complained, but no more than the rest of us did. That is the measure of the man. ■