J. B. Atkins
It is over twenty years since J. B. Atkins, who died on Tues- day at the age of 82, left the Spectator, but the charm of the man remains a vivid memory, in the minds of many here. fie came from the Manchester Guardian in 1907 (a path that has been taken since by other Manchester Guardian men), and until middle twenties he worked as assistant editor under St. Loe Strachey. Many a journalist must have recalled this „.Lee.k the pleasures of delivering copy to Atkins, an occasion 7wch was seldom allowed to pass without an agreeable con- oversation on any topic under the sun. He was very much LE the old school of journalism which increasing specialisation uss weakened but not, it is to be hoped, destroyed--a cultivated fentleman, with a wide range of interests, well fitted to apply his intelligence to a great variety of the problem's that came u l) from week to week. When he left the Spectator a dinner was given in his honour and someone described him then as h of the great anonymities of Fleet Street." He would e_Ove been well pleased to think that the phrase would be ed again in tribute after his death, for all the values which 4.17. guarded as a journalist are implicit in it. His connection the the Spectator did not end entirely when he left it to edit "e church newspaper the Guardian, and in the issue last year which i re,„ . ce.ebrated this journall 125th anniversary he had a time article on the days of St. Loe Strachey. From time eveffine he would write to members of the Spectator's staff, and in the briefest, letter this most pleasant of personalities ,W,isnevident. Here, as in the London office of the Manchester "__eardian and elsewhere, he is being remembered with the atest affection.
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