Requiescant in Pace

Sad to hear of the deaths of three more old Reuter colleagues. We’d known for some time of course of Jack Hartzman’s brave battle. The many tributes in this column are well merited, though not the whole picture and perhaps a little too full of Mrs Moon’s culture. Things were not good in the editorial in the Eighties, reflected in the late Dave Mathews’ well-remembered “Whitecoats” in-house diary. Some left the firm. Jack, our late Diplomatic Editor Sidney Weiland and I regularly lamented the editorial malaise over lunch at a Farringdon Road eaterie. JH didn’t spare the four-letter words about the bosses. Mike Littlejohns was probably the longest holder ever of any Reuter reporting job, and always well remembered too by those, including Allan Barker, Tony Goodman and myself, who covered the United Nations  in the early Sixties. Mike, with his impeccable shorthand and rapid two-finger typing, seemed to know everybody in the building, though how he stood the political jargon for so long will ever remain a mystery to me. Requiescant in Pace. ■