My former colleague and mentor, Ernie Burrington, has died aged 91. His lengthy journalistic career began at 16 when he joined his hometown newspaper, the Oldham Chronicle.
He eventually rose, via the subeditorial route, with spells on the Daily Herald, the Sun and Daily Mirror, to be editor of the People for four years in the 1980s and then managing director of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) before a short and uncomfortable stint as the company’s deputy chairman during Robert Maxwell’s ownership.
After the tycoon’s death, Ernie was forced to resign when it emerged that he had been pressured by him to sign a cheque moving money from MGN to one of Maxwell’s private companies. He was exonerated in subsequent police inquiries and, after a brief period running a consultancy, he spent three years as a senior executive with the US magazine publisher, Atlantic Media.
I first met Ernie in 1969 when I was appointed deputy chief subeditor of the Sun and he was night editor. Recognising that I was hopelessly inexperienced and out of my depth, he offered me nightly advice, showing a kindness rarely in evidence in the dog-eat-dog culture of national newspapers. This friendship was cemented in late night, and early morning, drinking sessions at the Press Club.
Ernie, who had a wicked sense of humour and a love of mischief, was given to delivering jokes while leaning over your shoulder close to your ear, as if disclosing some dark secret. Onlookers thought he was plotting, a misreading of the habit but one that Ernie never sought to deny.
When I became editor of the Daily Mirror in 1990 and quickly found myself fighting with Maxwell, Ernie played diplomat to defuse a series of tense confrontations. “Up to you,” he’d usually say, “but I think you should retreat.”
According to Ernie’s grandson Tom he liked to entertain his family with stories of Maxwell’s erratic behaviour. As with so many people who worked for the publisher, Ernie was fired on several occasions and, a day or so later, would receive a call from Maxwell saying: “Where the hell have you been? Get back to the office now.”
Born in Oldham, Ernie was the son of Harold, a labourer and security guard, and Laura, a mill worker, and went to Chadderton grammar school (now North Chadderton school). He chose journalism – with a three-year break for army service (1944-47) – like so many working-class boys, after discovering a talent for writing.
He and his wife, Nancy (nee Crossley), who married in 1950, had two children. Peter, also a journalist, died in 2008. Ernie is survived by Nancy, their daughter, Jill, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
