Remembering former editor of The Birmingham Post and Stratford Herald journalist Jack Reedy, who has died aged 91

JACK REEDY, who has died aged 91, was an old-school journalist who wore his learning lightly and was magnificent company in whatever environment he found himself.

A former editor of The Birmingham Post and later the man in charge of overseeing independent radio and television in the Midlands, Jack was happy in his retirement years working as a freelance reporter for the Stratford Herald, particularly writing about rural matters which were close to his heart.

He never forgot his trade as a journalist – despite the elevated posts he occupied in his later career – and on one occasion in the Herald newsroom declared, when writing a story: “Once you’ve got the intro right, the rest flows from that.” Despite being a man who was then in his seventies he uttered this cardinal truth with the enthusiasm of a young trainee.

Former colleagues recalled that there was little doubt that Jack had serious claims to being a “character” as they remembered the ancient Lagonda he drove that spent most of the time off the road being adjusted to meet the latest legal requirements.

Other eccentricities included his outings as a press soccer team’s goalkeeper, which led on at least one occasion to his turning up in the office in full goalie gear and caked in mud in response to a desperate summons over some breaking story.

And then there was the time, alongside the Post sports journalist Mike Blair, when he regaled diners in an Indian restaurant with a selection of songs from Gilbert & Sullivan! This talent came on top of his ability to mimic the great northern comedian Al Read from time to time in the Post newsroom…

Ex-colleague David Dunckley knew Jack particularly well, having worked closely with him for 15 years on The Birmingham Post. “For certain, life was never dull,” said David. “Jack’s enthusiasm was infectious. Ideas abounded and he was never short of a compliment when he felt it had been earned.

“I enjoyed my years working alongside him. He was a character of his time who lived and breathed newspapers. Even when he left the daily grind he couldn’t get the ink out of his veins and offered his talents to his local weekly newspaper.”

Jack began his career in journalism on The Sheffield Telegraph. He became a sub-editor and moved to The Sunday Times, followed by a stint on The Guardian handling home news, parliamentary news and the foreign pages. He joined The Birmingham Post in 1964 as features editor, becoming deputy editor in 1972 and editor from 1974 to 1982.

Between 1982 and his retirement in 1994 he worked for what was then the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) – later to become the Independent Television Commission - as the senior national and regional officer co-ordinating the work of the 12 regional offices, and was responsible for overseeing television and radio programming in the Midlands.

This job entailed representing the organisation in discussions with MPs, ministers and local authorities. His favourite aspect of the work, though, was talking to the public about broadcasting. He did lots of “town halls” and loved tackling questions and objections from the audience.

Jack was born in Manchester in 1934 and his family lived in Didsbury throughout the Second World War, during which Jack was evacuated to Rowsley near Bakewell in Derbyshire.

His daughter, Fiona, said: “He always recalled this as a very happy time. The family he stayed with ran pretty much everything in the village, including the shop, the wood yard and – a common sideline for wood yards at that time – the undertakers. He stayed in touch with them all his life.”

He was educated at Chorlton High School in Manchester and at the University of Sheffield, where he read French and German.

During his career in Midlands journalism Jack was chairman of the West Midlands Region of the Guild of British Newspaper Editors, in 1979-80, as well as serving as its secretary from 1980-82.

He also served for two years as secretary of Birmingham Press Club in the late 1980s, as well as playing an active life in the city, being editorial consultant to Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, secretary of the Midlands Centre of the Royal Television Society, a council member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the Territorial Army (West Midlands) Employers’ Liaison Committee.

With his passion for all things rural Jack was heavily involved in the campaign to protect badgers. For many years he was associated with the Badger Trust.

Said Fiona: “My parents were always interested in wildlife and, when I was six, we stayed at a hotel which had badgers living in an overgrown formal garden.

“They were fascinated by the badgers and went out badger watching every evening. They were still badger watching regularly into their seventies – though I think they did have the odd evening off!

“Both my parents were involved with the Badger Trust and the Warwickshire Badger Group which my father chaired for some years. He would appear regularly on Countryfile and Farming Today to put the case for badger conservation in his role as media adviser to the Badger Trust.”

Jack met his wife Sheila – also a journalist – when they were both working on The Sheffield Telegraph. They married in 1964 and moved to Rowington when Jack joined The Birmingham Post. Their marriage lasted 55 years until Sheila’s death in 2019. Their only child, Fiona, was born in 1968.

Fiona said that both her parents were extremely well-read with a library of books ranging from astronomy to the classics “to a pristine and patently superfluous book on de-cluttering”.

She said it was a privilege to have been Jack’s daughter. “For me he had the knack of making everything interesting and was one of the very few blue sky thinkers I have ever come across,” she said.

Jack, who had specifically requested that there should be no funeral, died peacefully at Alexandra Hospital in Redditch after a brief bout of pneumonia. A tea party in his memory has been arranged for 3pm at Rowington Village Hall on Saturday 7th June.