My father, Gordon “Nobby” Clark, who has died aged 90, was for many years a Fleet Street journalist and industrial correspondent for the Press Association.
Born in Rainham, Kent, the only child of Thomas, a brickfield worker, and Alice (nee Wildish), a nurse, Gordon went to Gillingham grammar school for boys before taking a job at the aircraft maker Short Brothers in Rochester, where he learned shorthand and typing. After military service during the second world war, he joined the Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham News as a reporter, making use of his shorthand skills to cover local council news and the activities of Gillingham football club. At the paper he met Sheila Warner, a proofreader, and they married in 1954.
In 1959 Fleet Street beckoned, and Gordon joined the Press Association as a general reporter. During his time there he stood outside No 10 Downing Street on the snowy night of 23 January 1965, awaiting the announcement that Winston Churchill had died. He also covered the Profumo affair and undertook an interview with Jack Mills, the train driver assaulted in the 1963 Great Train Robbery.
Gordon eventually became the Press Association’s deputy industrial correspondent, covering the myriad labour disputes of the 1970s and nurturing Barbara Castle, secretary of state for employment, as a key contact – especially during the debate around her white paper In Place of Strife.
In the late 1980s, Gordon moved to a more genteel setting, covering debates in the House of Lords for the Press Association before retiring in 1990.
Having assisted Sheila in her duties as mayor of Gillingham, in retirement he also helped me during my 13 years as the Labour MP for Gillingham and Rainham. He continued to follow the exploits of Gillingham FC with enthusiasm and was a life member of Kent county cricket club.
He is survived by Sheila, me, and his two grandchildren, Rachel and James.
