Roger Croft - Adventures in Journalism and Beyond

20 — 21 Interview – Looking Back Catalyst Journal — 2018

Roger Croft—

Adventures in Journalism & Beyond

You could never accuse SUMS alumnus, Roger Croft, of living a sheltered life. From witnessing the bombings of WW2 as a child, to a degree in Economics and Accounting, Roger found his calling in financial journalism, uniting his love of writing with his intellect for translating complex business economics to a newly curious post-war audience.

22 — 23 Interview – Looking Back Catalyst Journal — 2018

Working amongst the lavishly wealthy press barons of 1950’s London, briefly interrupted by a spell in the British Army, Roger later resumed journalism in Egypt and Canada. His fascinating career is full of unique twists and turns. It’s a captivating read – much like one of his espionage novels.

Growing up in Hertfordshire, what was it that made you decide to study Economics?

I was born in Bushey and just eleven when World War 2 came to an end, so the dark clouds of war dominated my childhood. I saw long, drawn out aerial dog-fights in the sky; and at night I can remember looking south from my bedroom at the fiery red glow as London burned from the unrelenting nightly blitz.

My mother, a widow since 1938, was one of many unsung heroines of the war, defiantly commuting to Euston on a daily basis to work at a City bank, even at the height of the blitz. My chosen degree was Economics and Accounting. Why? Because my father had been an accountant and I couldn’t think of an alternative! Besides, economics always fascinated, even though it was a complete mystery to me.

The course I took years ago would now be under the Management School umbrella which of course didn’t exist in the late 1950’s.

Your early career in the ‘golden age’ of British financial reporting for London’s Daily Mail, The Economist and the Sunday Telegraph sounds like life was lived at 100 miles per hour! What was it like working in this fast-paced world and what did you learn from those enigmatic figures such as Roland Bird, Sir Patrick Sergeant and Lord Lawson of Blaby?

I graduated in 1955 and was already ‘articled’ to a firm of chartered accountants in the City. But I found the work laborious and boring and I knew that I did not want to follow in my father’s footsteps. Accountancy and auditing weren’t for me.

But while commuting by train (the same route as my Mother had made) every morning I read the papers avidly. It was on those commutes that I realized I could write ‘this stuff’– meaning the financial commentaries. Thanks to my accountancy background, I also understood the comments and views about various companies – the micro picture. So out of my boredom, I simply wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Mail. To my surprise I got an interview. The rest is history.

The financial staff of the mass circulation papers and ‘quality’ publications were headed up by larger-than-life financial editors. They enjoyed massive salaries, bestowed by their like-minded proprietors

Above Roger Croft © Geordie Rose

(Lords Beaverbrook, Rothermere, Kemsley, Hartwell), free company cars (usually a Jaguar) and unlimited expense accounts to help pay for those sumptuous luncheons at the Savoy Grill or at Prunier on St. James’s.

The search for scoops (planned mergers, corporate takeovers, boardroom shuffles etc.) was unrelenting and permeated the motivations of every financial reporter – even the lift boys in the old buildings of Fleet Street. Frederick Ellis, City Editor of the Daily Express, was in fact a quick-witted and cheeky

ex-liftboy (he coined the term ‘golden handshake’) whom Lord Beaverbrook had promoted to copy boy and never looked back.

His grand competitor was Patrick Sergeant. He got a lot of scoops from the corporate world. It was said in those days that Sergeant always landed on his feet; he was on a solitary mission to Moscow at the time of Stalin’s sudden death and wrote the big front-page story – a classic scoop at that time.

At the Daily Mail I was called up following my conscription deferment while at the University. I served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps. To keep my hand in journalism, I took a course during my posting in West Germany which led to a diploma from the (formerly known) London School of Journalism.

But it was during national service that my interest in espionage was piqued. Junior officers had their share of ‘Duty Officer’ tasks such as being on night-watch, patrolling precincts and taking short kips in the Officers ‘secured’ night-room. I recall one such time in the Officer’s night-room when I stumbled upon an unlocked bedside drawer. It contained NATO’S strategic game plan and our marching orders should the ‘balloon go up’ signalling a Soviet surge westward – a very real fear in the late 1950s. But here was the main battle plan, in an unsealed manila envelope in an unlocked drawer. This was a room frequented by unvetted German employees of the Officers Mess and the former Wehrmacht army sergeant who managed the place.

After West Germany, the Economist approached me. My direct boss was Deputy Editor Roland Bird, a taciturn, heavy-jowled man, a lifetime staffer who had worked his way up the ladder after joining the magazine as a statistician in the 1930s. During the war he was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to overhaul MI5’s copious domestic records database. This fascinating piece of information never came out until his obituary was published many years later in The Times.

In the early 60s, Nigel Lawson, later to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, was chosen by Lord Rothschild to be City editor of the newly launched Sunday Telegraph. He was desperate for staff and by then I was tired of ‘evening’ journalism. Working with Lawson was an education in itself. He had a PPE from Oxford. I met his young daughter Nigella, then about five or six, for tea at his Chelsea house one Saturday afternoon. Lawson loved his gourmet lunches. I was not surprised Nigella eventually emerged as a renowned chef!

24 — 25 Interview – Looking Back Catalyst Journal — 2018

Experience is everything. You have one life – do you really want to spend all of it in one place or one country?

— Roger Croft

You’ve worked in Morocco and Egypt with fellow expatriates in what sounded like a different pace and unfamiliar surroundings. Reflecting back on these times, what are your impressions/ emotions of having worked abroad and what did you learn from upping sticks?

While at Sheffield, I had made some close friends from West Asia. Ahmed Kadri, a Syrian, had returned to Damascus and landed a staff job at Syria’s central bank. Out of the blue, he called me. This was around 1963. He wanted me to meet the editor-inchief of Egypt’s only English-language newspaper, The Egyptian Gazette. I was offered the job in Cairo as editorial writer. My wanderlust got the better of me. I landed in Cairo in autumn 1964. I was also told to pick up the newspaper’s views on world politics (by reading past editorials). I’m glad I did as I became fascinated by the political landscape.

What would you say to fellow alumni who may feel daunted about making such a big leap?

I would tell them that experience is everything. You have one life – do you really want to spend all of it in one place or one country? How can you really do this if you only act in one play or one location?

In 1978 you were nominated for a National Newspaper Award for feature writing. Your time in Canada appears to have been highly fulfilling both professionally and personally. What made you wish to settle in Canada?

After leaving Egypt (where I’d been for two years), I came back to London. My mother insisted that before I go on a job search that I visit my brother, who emigrated to Canada. By sheer chance I met Michael Barkway (former BBC and Economist reporter) in Montreal who was recruiting staff for the Financial Times of Canada. I was not sold on Canada, but I decided to give it a try. Within eighteen months I was the newspaper’s investment editor. When working for the Toronto Star (largest daily) I received the award nomination. It was on the history of inflation, heavily-researched (then a hot topic throughout the industrialized world. Barkway, I learned later, also worked for MI6 during the war, and occasionally I would see a visiting Roland Bird in Barkway’s office suite.

Read all our alumni profiles: www.catalyst-magazine.net

You recently attended one of our alumni events in Toronto hosted by Dr Stewart Smyth from the Management School – what made you interested in meeting fellow alumni and also what did you get out of it?

One develops a sort of nostalgic affection for the times and places that provided major building blocks to one’s life and career. And it’s always interesting to meet fellow graduates – a mixture of professions from medicine to engineers to lawyers and teachers. Dr Smyth’s recent visit was enjoyable and interesting.

It’s always interesting to meet fellow graduates– Dr Smyth’s recent visit was enjoyable and interesting.

— Roger Croft

As an accomplished author of espionage thrillers, have you found that your career in the heady world of journalism has influenced your writing?

I began writing spy novels about seven years ago. ‘The Wayward Spy,’ published in 2010, is a steady seller and received good reviews. The sequels have also done well. ‘Tight’ and precise writing is the essence of good reporting, and a sparse style is what works best in espionage thrillers.

How do you feel your education and time at Sheffield subsequently helped shape your career, your life choices and the decisions you have taken?

Without sounding too pompous, I think the study of economics, along with statistics and economic history, gives a student a tremendous advantage in life. That economics degree from the University provided the cornerstone of my long, interesting and, I hope, fruitful life story.

Left This photo shows Roger (second from right) at the Students’ Union bar following the Rag day in 1954.

“It illustrates one of the big unsung benefits of studying at Sheffield – the opportunity to meet many students from overseas. My companions were (to my right) Ahmad Mazhar Kadri (Syrian), and Kahtan Abdul Ahmed (Iraqi). On my left is a Saudi Arabian gentleman, whose name unfortunately escapes me. Collectively, these guys gave me a tremendous education in the seemingly perpetual Middle East crisis.”

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