Richard Williams

The news of Richard Williams’ death - at just 56 - came as a huge shock. As the ’68 song went, “it seems the good, they die young”. It is deeply, deeply sad.

I worked with Richard in the NUJ. His loyalty and commitment to Reuters chapel members was deep and heartfelt. He never worried about the impact on his career of standing up for the chapel and the rights of members - no matter how tough that was.

But he was not just deeply principled, he was fun. He had the hard bitten humour that came with working at Reuters, forged by both the reality of what we reported on and the frequent crassness of the way people were treated.

John Fullerton has asked why so many Reuters people do not seem to live to enjoy what should be an exciting period after the Baron. There are no statistics to back this up, and some people have gone on to rich and fulfilling afterlives. But I agree with John that there do seem to be too many early losses. Maybe we need to do more ourselves. I hadn’t seen Richard for years. I now wish I had.

Richard was someone who was truly of Reuters, not just with Reuters. He will be missed. ■