The truth-seeking national newspaper editor was a giant who inspired a generation of journalists
Former colleagues and friends lined up last week to pay tribute to Sir Harold Evans, the feted editor of the Sunday Times in the 1970s, who died on Wednesday, aged 92. Unanimity is a rare commodity in the tribal world of newspapers, but there has, rightly, been no dissent from the view that Evans was the most inspiring editor of his generation, and perhaps of any.
A good deal of this reputation rests on his relentless pursuit of a series of truths that were deeply uncomfortable to the British establishment: exposing Kim Philby as a Soviet spy; revealing the full story of the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry; and, indelibly, campaigning for justice and compensation, over eight years, for the 10,000 people damaged before birth by the morning sickness drug thalidomide. Of all the eulogies offered to Evans, you imagine the ones he might have appreciated most were those from thalidomide survivors, including Mikey Argy, who, like many, remained in touch with him: “He thought of us as his children,” Argy said, “and we thought of him as our hero. He was willing to break the law for us… He had total respect for us and we had total awe for him.”
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