The Board was saddened to learn of the passing of respected journalist and London Press Cub Director, Bill Hagerty, on Boxing Day. He was 86.
Doug Wills, chair of the London Press Club, said: “Such sad news. Bill was a doyen of all things journalistic. Particularly for me in recent years as a former chair of judges of the London Press Club Awards and the Hugh Cudlipp Award. We will miss him greatly.”
Twice an editor of Fleet Street newspapers – Sunday Today and in 1991 The People – he was also for a period acting editor of the Daily Mirror.
He subsequently edited the highly-praised media magazine British Journalism Review.
Bill’s passionate support for freedom of the press and the importance of journalism and journalists was reflected in many of his articles. As show business editor for the Daily Mirror he travelled widely from Hollywood to New York and to film locations across the globe to interview many star performers, including John Wayne, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Sammy Davis Jr, Gene Kelly, Neil Diamond and Joan Collins.
He wrote two books on the British media, including ‘Read All About It – 100 Sensational Years of the Daily Mirror’, and in 2007 was selected by The British Library to contribute his life story to their Oral History of the British Press.
Bill (third left), with his wife Liz Vercoe, Press Club chair Doug Wills (left) and Alistair Campbell.
In 2023 he was awarded the title of London Press Club Journalist Laureate for efforts far beyond the printed page. Bill collected his honour and the Laureate’s pen in front of a host of national newspaper editors, media executives past and present, and other leading media figures including former Downing Street press secretary Alastair Campbell who said Bill was a ‘terrific journalist’ with ‘a youthful zest for life, a real interest in people, and a love of storytelling’. [Top picture: Bill with his family receiving his award.]
Receiving his award Bill said: ‘I started out in this grand old trade covering, among other things, amateur football in east London. Sixty-something years later, having been around the block, and the globe, several times, I find my only regular gig is writing regular match reports on Brentford FC – Premier League admittedly, but football still. Funny old game, journalism.’
A father of three and grandfather of five, he is survived by his journalist wife, Liz Vercoe.
The Times wrote:
Newspaper veteran, editor of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, theatre reviewer for The Sun and tireless campaigner for press freedom, dies aged 86
Bill Hagerty was the Fleet Street editor who, in 1992, broke the story of David Mellor’s adulterous relationship with the actress Antonia de Sancha in the Sunday People. The Conservative arts minister had not endeared himself to the fourth estate and, despite the inevitable furore about intrusion, Hagerty was unapologetic. “[Mellor] was a pompous hypocrite. He’d used his family in his election address. He was the minister in charge of the press. He was the one who talked about [how the press were drinking in] the last chance saloon,” he told academics investigating the reporting of political scandal.
If he expected his handiwork to be appreciated by opposition politicians, he was disappointed. Shortly afterwards, he was at a party at Peter Mandelson’s flat with several of the shadow cabinet. “A couple of them really didn’t want to talk to me. They were polite but icy … It wasn’t that they disapproved of us kicking Mellor, but that there were skeletons rattling around in their, or more likely, their colleagues’ cupboards. If we could do it to Mellor, we could do it to them,” he said.
The Sunday People’s story published extensive quotes from Mellor from what appeared to be private conversations, including his admission that the relationship was interfering with his ministerial role. “You have absolutely exhausted me,” the so-called minister of fun told his lover. “I feel seriously knackered. I had a wonderful time with you last night … I’ve got two big speeches to do tomorrow, neither of which I have prepared.”
