Daily staff reporter for 40 years
One
of journalism’s great natural characters, Trevor Reynolds, a national
daily newspaper staff reporter for 40 years, has died suddenly in his
Lincolnshire home, at 71.
After training on local papers and news
agencies in Yorkshire, Trevor joined the old Daily Herald in London in
1954, then the Daily Express in Manchester in 1964.
He moved to
the Daily Mirror, also in Manchester, in 1983, staying for 10 years
before becoming press officer with Lincolnshire County Council.
He later returned to newspapers as a freelance, working regularly for The Mail on Sunday.
In
his career he covered many major stories, from the Kray brothers and
Christine Keeler to the Yorkshire Ripper and the Soham murders.
Ann
West, mother of 10-year-old Leslie Ann Downey, one of the Moors Murders
victims, described Trevor in her autobiography as “the only true
gentleman journalist I ever met in my long years of torture as my baby
remained unfound in her unknown grave”.
With his bubbling
personality, colourful but always immaculate clothes and a series of
ultra-fast, ultra-bright sports cars, Trevor made a vivid impression on
everyone he met Trevor, son of a distinguished war correspondent who
was killed in action in the Far East only days before the end of the
Second World War, also specialised in the coverage of pop music in the
1960s and ’70s during his Express days.
The Beatles, Rod Stewart
and Roy Orbison were among his friends and confidants; he covered the
early tours of Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Abba, the
Carpenters and Shirley Bassey.
Trevor believed that harmless misrepresentation was important in the pursuit of news. He had a ‘Doctor on call’
sign for his car and left an ancient stethoscope in the back seat.
Sometimes
he would dig a pair of aged crutches from the car boot and hobble up to
a house to inspire sympathy from someone who had already turned away
his rivals. Occasionally it worked and he was invited in for an
interview.
He also had a green, gilt-buttoned suit which, with a
pair of wings pinned on the breast, looked at first glance like an Aer
Lingus pilot’s uniform.
But one of his proudest boasts was: “There has never been a Press Council complaint about any story of mine in half a century”.
Trevor leaves a widow, Brenda, who he met and married 33 years ago while both worked on the Express.
By Stanley Blenkinsop
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