Old photos

I was going through old photos yesterday and found this gem portraying two of the Paris bureau's main pillars for decades (with yours truly standing behind them): Gilbert Sedbon seated on the left and Louis Marcerou on the right.

If memory serves me right, the photo was taken near Paris nearly 20 years ago at a retirement party for Daniel Fogel who began his Reuters career as a teenage trainee accountant and ended it decades later as Manager France. 

Louis died prematurely of cancer not long after this photo was taken and Gil, who had worked for Reuters for 47 years (a possible company record?), died last June aged 94.

My fond memories of both of these dear friends are tinged with some sadness, however. 

Three months after Gil’s death, it emerged that his widow had not heard anything from Reuters about receiving a pension. When she approached the relevant services at TR to have this wrong redressed, she was told that she had to prove that her husband had worked for Reuters! 

How? For example by providing a copy of his letter of engagement by Reuters in Cairo in 1935! 

Aghhhhhh! ■