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October 12, 2012updated 16 Oct 2012 2:47pm

7. British journalism’s greatest ever scoops: The survival of Harry Eddom (The Daily Express, 1968)

By Richard Wilson

The Ross Cleveland was the third Hull trawler to sink in the space of 28 days in a particularly bitter winter.

It was an unprecedented tragedy in which 58 lives were lost.

Alan Bennett led the Fleet Street pack by revealing that one man, Harry Eddom, had survived.  

According to Joe Mullin, who was on The Sun at the time: “Poetically written with drama in every word, Alan’s exclusive was splashed across the front of the broadsheet Daily Express. When his story landed on rival desks, there was a mad rush to catch up and follow with the first interview.  Every reporter eager to get in on it waited for the call to catch the first plane to Reyjavik.”

The Sun later published exclusive pictures of Eddom’s reunion in Iceland with his wife.

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