Nick Carter

Nick, as he described himself, was a go-between, bringing people in different areas together and helping them understand each other.

He probably didn’t expect to bring my wife, Janet, and me together but he did just that in 1981. I was bureau chief in Amsterdam at the time and attended a meeting in Nick’s office in London about the then new “video-editing” system. Janet (then Ellingham) was one of the “technical” people there and two years later we were married.

Nick was always so interested in so much. He was full of curiosity and enthusiasm, and often indignation at something he felt was wrong. It was a treat to read his concise but lively end-of-year greetings, so unlike the lengthy documents some people circulate at Christmas/New Year.

Janet notes that she, Nick and engineer ‘Raj’ Rajeswaran met on many occasions to discuss how video-editing terminals could be made to work for journalists in bureaux around the world. In her words:

“Nick’s sheer enthusiasm entranced both Raj and me. Nick would ask for something and we would tell him it was technically impossible. Nick would deflate in his chair and then would bounce back up with a ‘solution’. 

“Again we would come up with technical opposition and down went Nick into his chair like a punctured football, only to bounce up again with yet another idea of a way round the problem, equally technically impossible. This often went on for more than half an hour. However, we rarely left the meeting without some sort of solution being ‘agreed’, often with me having to go back to the manufacturer of the terminal with yet another complete design change of hardware or software! 

“Nick’s enthusiasm got us through and the terminals were introduced into many bureaux.” ■