Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home
Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home (1 September 1937 – 29 October
1985) was a Scottish journalist who served as editor of The Times
from 1982 until his death.
Summary: educated at Eton;
commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys, 1956; ADC to Sir Evelyn
Baring as Governor of Kenya, 1958-1959; military correspondent,
1961-1962 and political and diplomatic correspondent, 1962-1964 for
the Daily Express; correspondent for The Times, 1965-1985; defence
correspondent, 1965-1970; publication of The Arabs and Israel (1968)
and Britain's Reserve Forces (1969); features editor, 1970-1973;
publication of Rommel (1973); home editor, 1973-1978; publication of
Evelyn Baring the last Proconsul (1978); foreign editor, 1978-1981;
deputy editor, 1981-1982; editor, 1982-1985;
Douglas-Home
was the younger son of the Honourable Henry Douglas-Home (from his
first marriage to Lady Margaret Spencer) and a nephew of the former
British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. He was educated at Eton
College (where he was a King's Scholar) and then went into the
British Army in 1956 in the Royal Scots Greys. On leaving the Army
he worked briefly selling books and encyclopaedias, went to Canada
for a few months, and then served as aide-de-camp to Sir Evelyn
Baring who was Governor of Kenya.
When he returned to the UK
he wanted to work in television but was quickly rejected because his
accent and approach appeared wrong and he had no journalistic
training. This led him to go into newspapers and he worked on the
Scottish Daily Express covering breaking news. Douglas-Home found
the work dull and was about to resign before he was promoted to be
the deputy to Chapman Pincher, the respected Defence correspondent
of the Daily Express in London. This job was fascinating to
Douglas-Home, and confirmed him in his career.
After eighteen
months, Douglas-Home became the principal political and diplomatic
correspondent of the Express. However he disagreed with the paper's
opposition to British entry to the European Communities and with
relief in 1965 was appointed to succeed Alun Gwynne-Jones as The
Times Defence Correspondent. He covered the Six Days War and the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. From 1970 he was features editor,
and in 1973 he became home editor.
William Rees-Mogg was
impressed with Douglas-Home's approach and made him foreign editor
in 1978. He was a candidate for the editorship when Rupert Murdoch
took over the paper in 1981, but Harold Evans was appointed instead.
However a year later Murdoch and Evans had a spectacular falling-out
over issues of editorial independence, and Douglas-Home was finally
appointed. He edited The Times between 1982 and 1985. He stabilised
the paper, which was in a parlous state because of the year long
closure it had suffered and the shock caused by the sacking of his
predecessor, Harold Evans, and then began a steady process of
improvement. Although firmly Conservative in the editorial line he
adopted in the paper's leaders, he was strongly committed to the
tradition of impartial news reporting. He continued to edit the
paper with great courage through a long and painful illness.
He died of cancer aged only 48. He left a widow
Jessica Gwynne and
two sons Tara (born 1969) and Luke (born 1971). He was succeeded as
editor by Charles Wilson.
The Charles Douglas-Home Memorial
Trust Award was named after him. It was established after he died
and is given to a writer who writes an article in the areas of
defence, foreign affairs, democracy, the royal prerogative in the
21st century or music.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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