David Watt
Sir: I have just read the excellent tribute to David Watt in the Spectator (4 April). I should, however, like to point out that it was my husband, lain Hamilton, who first employed David on the Spectator and who also brought him back to the paper as its political correspondent in 1962 when he was appointed editor.
May I quote from the letter David wrote to me on my husband's death last July: The man who gives one one's first job always occupies, I imagine, a special place in any- one's life and Iain certainly did in mine. His kindness and encouragement at the Spectator both when I went there straight from Oxford and when he asked me back later on — were phenomenal.
I would never have gone into journalism at all without him, and without him I certainly shouldn't have been any good at it. And, of course, I know I'm not alone in this. The warmth of his heart and his enthusiasm fired a lot of people to write better than they knew they could — and to hold him in deep affection and gratitude ever after.
Jean C. Hamilton
105 Salisbury Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
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