Ray Rumble

When I was appointed to succeed Commander John Meadows as Special Services Manager in 1972 I was indebted to Ray for initially leading me through the minefield of Special Traffic. There were just four of us, Ray, Frank Giles (who spent his days adding up the number of words transmitted on behalf of the non-Reuter correspondents filing over the Reuters network), Sue Warren our secretary and me. These were tempestuous days when Wally Tuffin ruled the roost in the Special Services Unit on the 4th Floor and would splutter in indignation at the flood of copy the Unit had to handle. Ray and I took the brunt of the frustration “in the field” (as has already been noted in these columns) and the heat from the SSU kitchen and the menaces from the PTTs. Getting the South African Press Association (SAPA) to sign contracts conceding their rights in their copy to Reuters and then getting the South African Post Office to accept these rights (“and just how many of you speak Afrikaans, Mr Smith?”) was one of the more notable instances of our defence of Special Services during the four years from 1972-76. There were many other interesting such examples. Ray, with his calm and collected manner and experience of telegraphic communications, was a stalwart deputy and a much liked man with whom it was an absolute pleasure to work. He was supportive in every way as we pushed the boundaries as far as we could for third party traffic. In time this went someway beyond just transmitting copy for the best known newspaper titles in the world whose stories would have been far less timely than they were without recourse to Reuter facilities. But Ray’s name was the one on the lips of most of their correspondents when they talked of Reuters, London. As it so clearly was in the memory of so many Reuter correspondents too. ■