My father, Charlie Partridge, who has died aged 72 after suffering complications from cancer, was a journalist, broadcaster and champion of local media.
Having begun his career at Radio Trent, he moved to the BBC’s Radio Nottingham in 1978 before joining Radio Humberside, eventually presenting the breakfast show. Always up for an attention-grabbing stunt, he once broadcast from a RAF Lightning fast jet, and on one April Fools’ Day claimed the town of Goole would be rebranding itself as “Go Olé”.
He moved on to become news editor at BBC Essex and despite being serious about his journalism he also starred in a regular feature on the station in which listeners would have to guess what song he was performing “in a pub singer style”.
In 1999 Charlie became managing editor of BBC Radio Lincolnshire, where his belief in the power of local media to create and bind communities together led to campaigns, alongside Lincolnshire Life magazine, for a Lincolnshire flag and a Lincolnshire Day (now marked on 1 October).
Unusual sightings of the flag became a fixture of our family’s WhatsApp group, with it appearing in the crowd at Glastonbury and at the Tour de France, and inspiring a number of Lincoln City FC away shirts.
His biggest source of professional pride, however, was the number of successful journalists he had either trained or worked with early on in their BBC careers.
Born in Plymouth to Ronald Partridge, a civil servant, and Vera (nee Harrington), Charlie moved with his family to Gloucester at the age of seven. He was educated at the Crypt grammar school and then the University of Nottingham, where he studied politics.
It was in Nottingham that he alighted on the world of radio as a career, after a short detour into teaching. There, too, he met Jill Rowland, whom he married in 1981, and who later worked as an academic librarian at the University of Lincoln. They went on to have three sons, Simon, Dominic and me.
A lifelong football fan, Charlie’s passion for the game was sparked by childhood visits to Home Park and later on he was, I’m pretty sure, the only Plymouth Argyle supporter with a season ticket for Lincoln City, whose games he attended alongside his sons. He was also a keen skier and cyclist.
Retiring from the BBC after 42 years amid the pandemic in 2020, he went on to work as mayor’s officer at the Guildhall in Lincoln, where his duties included carrying the mace as part of the lord mayor’s procession.
He is survived by Jill, Simon, Dominic and me, and his grandchildren, Finlay and Anna, and sister, Caroline.
