Peter Twaites, who has died aged 79, was a newspaper man through and through. His career took him from work as a 15-year-old darkroom assistant on the Sunday Mercury in Birmingham to studies for a PhD and a post as a lecturer in media law and photojournalism at Cardiff University.
Peter’s time in the darkroom was short-lived. His parents, Ellen, a school cook, and Thomas, a caretaker, bought him an Agfa Standard folding-plate camera and he soon proved himself to be a talented photographer and was given a staff job on the paper. He moved to the Express & Star in Wolverhampton, the Leicester Mercury and then the Evening World in Bristol, where he worked alongside the future playwright Tom Stoppard. Peter then went to the Swindon Advertiser, where he became chief photographer.
Peter was a committed trade unionist and socialist. At the Advertiser he served as the National Union of Journalists’ father of chapel (head of the union branch) and on the union’s area council and national executive. Peter’s style of leadership was very relaxed, prompting one editor to accuse him of running the photographic department as a co-operative. His response was to say that he was the first among equals … and that’s exactly what it felt like to work with him. He led a happy and productive team who felt valued and would have done anything for him.
His quiet and supportive approach to colleagues – and his frequent confrontation with newspaper management – was all the more remarkable given that he was a drill instructor during national service with the Royal Engineers. He enjoyed his military life so much that he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Territorial Army after demob, and made 38 parachute jumps.
In 1985, at the age of 52, Peter left newspapers. He went to Ruskin College, Oxford, and studied labour law. This was the start of a new and fulfilling academic career. He studied for a BSc in law and politics at Cardiff University and later gained an MA for his dissertation on privacy and the press. Peter lectured at Cardiff until his retirement. In 2004 he was awarded a PhD for his thesis The Professors of Fleet Street about the early days of photojournalism.
Peter is survived by his wife Ruth, whom he married in 1988, his children, Chris and Helen, from an earlier marriage, and his grandchildren, Sam, Jessica and Sophie. Peter’s eldest son, Carl, predeceased him.
