Obituary: David Chipp

Chipp joined Reuters in 1950 as a sports reporter. He was assigned to South East Asia in 1953, opening the post-war bureau in Rangoon and covering fighting in Burma and Indo-China. In 1956 he became Reuters’ first resident correspondent in Peking since the 1949 Communist takeover and mixed with the Communist leadership of Mao Zedong.

“Assiduous and engaging, Chipp developed a good working relationship with the Communist authorities,” Donald Read wrote in Reuters’ official history The Power of News. “Most of his stories were descriptive, telling about the condition of the people. He also reported major political speeches, and interviewed Chou En-lai and other leaders, as well as Pu Yi, ‘the last Emperor’.”

Chipp’s interview with the imprisoned Pu Yi scooped the world. Later he recalled that “If not the best or most important story I wrote from China, it was probably the strangest and most original.” 

Chipp was appointed editor of Reuters in 1968 and the following year became editor-in-chief of the Press Association, national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

“Journalism should be fun and if we don’t find it so, we might as well be bank clerks,” Chipp said at his first editorial conference at the PA.

In 1979, PA telegraphists supported a strike by regional journalists by decreeing they would only handle copy edited by Chipp.

He edited the PA’s entire news service - general news, sports, business news, stock prices and picture captions - for seven weeks, keeping up the news flow to regional newspapers.

When the PA was accused by Labour MP Dennis Skinner of being biased, the agency reported the allegation but Chipp added his own comment to the story: “We have issued this drivel from Skinner because otherwise he would accuse us of censorship. His accusation is an insult to every journalist working for PA.”

Chipp retired in 1986. His many interests in retirement included a directorship of the Reuters Foundation.

The funeral will take place at Chiltern Crematorium, Amersham on Wednesday 17 September at 10:45 am. Family and close friends only.

Letters about David Chipp may be written to his sister, but no telephone calls: Mrs Rosemary Wight, The Old School, Hinton on the Green, Evesham, Worcester WR11 2QU. ■