Hamilton Fyfe had as long and varied a career In
journalism as any man I can think of. He was 81 when he died last week and he had been writing to the end. His fortunes were largely bound up with Lord Northcliffe's and he was one of the numerous biographers of that spectacular personality. -He was not the only editor of the Daily Herald to find The exercise of his. functions incompatible with the activities of the Trade Union representa- tives who direct the paper's policy, and after four years he resigned. But the outstanding feature in his career was the report he sent, as Daily Mail war correspondent in the First War, of the retreat from Mons in 1914. It began with the rather emotional words, " Would to God 1 had not to tell this story." No one whose memory goes back to that day will forget the sensation the article caused or the alarm it temporarily inspired, though F. E. Smith, as Director of the Press Bureau, had modified parts of it ; but public opinion soon decided in favour of knowing the truth, however grim. Fyfe, whose first name was Henry, was liable to be confused with his younger brother, Sir William Hamilton Fyfe, late Principal of Aberdeen University.
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