Jim Forrester - an anchor point

Jim loved Prague. He and Bertha would drive there on holidays in the late 60s which they combined with Jim’s interest in the charity SOS Children’s Villages. During the tense times shortly after the Soviet invasion in 1968 Jim managed to get himself arrested, briefly, by jumpy Czechoslovak police. For correspondents in eastern Europe in those days it was good to know that Jim on the overnights had a feel for the problems writing a fresh daylead.

His house in Edinburgh was full of memorabilia from Prague. He had shelves of books written by former Reuter correspondents and at the regular lunches of fellow Reuter hacks in Edinburgh he would have sometimes ribald stories about many of us.

Recently, although confined by mobility troubles to home and his chair by the sitting room bay window, Jim was always welcoming to visitors, turning off satellite German television or playing classical music stations to catch up on Reuter and world events. We’ve lost an anchor point. ■