A chance to share your memories

Inspired by our feature in Mirror Pensioner in autumn 2023, a researcher with a close personal connection to MGN is looking for folk who lived through the Maxwell pensions scandal to *share their stories

MY name is Diane Taylor-Karrer, and I am the daughter of former Mirror Group pensioner and NGA union member, Harold Claydon.

I am currently employed at the London College of Communication (formerly the London College of Printing), and am working on a research project focused on Robert Maxwell and the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) pension scandal. I was particularly inspired by Andrew Golden’s insightful feature in the autumn 2023 issue of Mirror Pensioner.

I understand that, sadly, some of those directly involved are no longer be with us, but I would be incredibly grateful for any assistance from individuals who would be willing to share their stories. I believe their first-hand accounts would greatly enrich our understanding of this critical period.

My research is focused on the pivotal role unions played in recovering the lost pension funds, and I am very interested in speaking with key pensioners and individuals involved in the aftermath of the scandal as events unfolded.

Taking its lead from Andrew’s feature, the project will be a short independent podcast series, documenting the MGN pensions crisis through first-hand accounts. I’m hoping to interview and record (audio) any pensioners and others who would be willing to provide insights into:

The working environment under Robert Maxwell – both print and press
The day the news broke of Maxwell’s death and the subsequent discovery of missing funds
Union meetings – including but not exclusively NUJ and GPMU members
Negotiations with the executive board and legal teams
The ‘water tank’ proposal for the continuation of funds
The lobbying of Parliament for pension reform
The impact of the missing pensions – both mentally and financially

Interviews would take no longer than an hour and can be held over the phone or in a central location at Elephant and Castle in London. If anyone has any photographs of the working environment at the time they would be willing to share, that would be fantastic.

I’m particularly interested in speaking to any union members and former London College of Printing (LCP) apprentices who were working at MGN and were directly affected by the crisis at the time.

My dad passed away in 2011, and I have few memories of what information was shared at the time via the union. However, after two MGN redundancies, I was aware of the impact the news had on him.

*I can be contacted at: d.taylorkarrer@lcc.arts.ac.uk or on 07738 052592 for those who prefer to phone rather than email

Happy New Year everybody!

Wishing all our members and their families a very happy and healthy 2025.

(Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash)

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas

Wishing all our members and their families a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas, and all the best in the year to come.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Mirror Pensioner – read all about… lots!

 

Your autumn Mirror Pensioner is on its way, with full details of this year’s annual meetings – London AGM, October 9 at the Stationer’s Hall, Ave Maria Lane, London EC4M 7DD (off Ludgate Hill), and the Scottish annual meeting on October 23 at Reach Scotland’s new offices, 55 Douglas Street, Glasgow. There will be a free buffet at both meetings.

Your magazine also contains news and features relating to AMP, Reach and pensions, plus winner of the £25 for best story. And Captain Fantastic’s exploits on the North Sea; Grannies R Us; On the Buses with a former Sunday Mirror executive; sky diving – my secret desire, and much more.

Searching for “Scherzo”

RESEARCHER Glenn Reuben has been in touch, seeking information about two cartoonists: Scherzo, and Leonard Ward/Len Ward. If you can help Glenn, please use our Contact Us form and we will forward your message

Glenn says: I’m trying to identify the artists and photographers of the front covers of every Christmas issue of the TV Times magazine going back to 1955, in time for its 70th anniversary next year. This also includes the TV Times Christmas Extra supplement which ran sporadically from 1957 to 1979 with various titles.

The front cover of the 1958 TV Times Christmas Extra (see above) was done by “Scherzo”. From what I’ve gathered from my research, he contributed one-panel gags to TV Times between 1956 and 1966 (shortly before it went national in 1968). In a January 1959 article about the various cartoonist contributors, (below), he was annoyingly the only one who declined to give his real name or a photograph, but he was described as being in his mid-thirties (so probably born between 1923 and 1925), married and a Northerner.

He also contributed to Meccano magazine in 1960, the Sunday Mirror between 1965 and 1972, to the Telegraph, the Daily Sketch and Punch magazine. The most recent work I could find was from the Look-In TV Comedy Annual in 1974.

I’ve asked John Freeman to put a blog out about him here: https://downthetubes.net/can-you-help-track-down-tv-times-and-punch-cartoonist-scherzo/ … and Vilnis Vesma of the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain : https://ccgb.org.uk/wordpress/?p=8654 (this has also been sent out in their “Jester” newsletter). Also Bas Schuddeboom of the Lambiek website: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/scherzo.htm

Scherzo was employed by the Charles E. Gilbert Artists’ Agency in Fleet Street, along with Reg Smythe of Andy Capp fame (well-known at the Mirror) and Roy Raymonde, but Raymonde’s son hadn’t heard of him. Nor has Steve Holland of the Bear Alley blog, nor veteran cartoonist Peter Maddocks. I’ve no other information on where he lived or when he was born or died, or if he’s still alive. Here are some more examples of Scherzo’s work.

Leonard Ward/Len Ward: The second face is Leonard Ward, who also went by Len Ward, LW or Nelward. He did drawings for football publications such as Raich Carter’s Soccer Star and Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly in the early 1950s.

From what I’ve gathered, he became the very first art editor of the TV Times in September 1955. The late Eric Linden, a columnist who worked at those football publications, went with him to TV Times (unfortunately, his daughter Kerry hasn’t heard of Ward). Ward did the TV Times Christmas Extra covers for 1959, 1962, 1964 and 1965, presumably leaving around the same time as the magazine went national in 1968. Below is his Lambiek page:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/ward_len.htm

Ward eventually became a freelance artist and art consultant for a Brentwood-based printing company called Hussey & Greaves (later Hussey Knights), with the attached article from the Brentwood Gazette showing his face in 1987. According to the son of one of the founders of Hussey & Greaves, he may have been in the navy, maybe born around 1920 and possibly lived in the Epping/Loughton area in the 1980s, but this is guesswork. I suspect he’s no longer with us, but because it’s such a common name, searching Ancestry makes it hard to ascertain his birth and death dates. Steve Holland, Peter Maddocks et al. also don’t know any more about Ward.

I suspect he may have been born in 1924, lived in Hackney in London, married in 1947 and later lived in Whittlesford, perhaps with a wife called Betty (maiden name Stovell?), and died in 2001 and was buried in Cambridgeshire. This is having exhausted all possible routes via Ancestry’s website, but I’m not 100 per cent sure it’s correct.

Don’t miss these (with one revised date)

Two special Mirror dates for your diary.

Please note the revised date for Lynn White’s memorial service.

Spring!

AS mad March tires itself out and we await April’s showers, I am struck by the awesome show of spring flowers this year.

The cheerful early daffs are fading now, but the grape hyacincth, primulas, tulips (I have just the one!), pansies, primroses and hellebores are all showing off outrageously.

The blue tits are busy flitting back and forth from their nesting box, while the starlings (Latin name, appropriately, Sturnus vulgaris), have wrecked the birds’ feeding station.

We do have reasons to be cheerful. Ed.                                                 (pic: ming-jun-tan/unsplash)

Do you know what Day it is?

A LITTLE whimsy, if you will, to brighten your Random Acts of Kindness Day…

Spring isn’t far away, but first we have to endure dark and grey February. What is it about February? Is it the bleakest month of all? After the hoohah of Christmas and New Year, frumpy February suffers a character bypass and stubbornly drags its feet while we anxiously wait for better weather and more daylight.

Valiant snowdrops and crocus are doing their best to liven up my garden, but it’s mostly looking rather soggy and wintry out there. I know it is winter and I shouldn’t wish my life away, but I really want my daffs to hurry up.

I cheered myself up on Shrove Tuesday with a banquet of pancakes and Cava, a minor oasis of indulgence during unloved February. My enjoyment lasted about as long as the bubbles.

But the date got me thinking about other memorable days in February (I know, I should get out more), and surfing the web, as you do, I found this marvellous website: https://www.thereisadayforthat.com

I shouldn’t be surprised to learn there’s a website for “awareness days”! Thereisadayforthat covers hundreds of special days which are celebrated in every corner of the world, but you can also check out the awareness calendar for a specific country.

I discovered that in the UK during February – apart from the obvious charity days and venerables such as the aforementioned Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s – we can also celebrate British Yorkshire Pudding Day (Feb 4th); National Sickie Day (5th); Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (6th); and Drink Wine Day (18th). And on Feb 27, why not enjoy the magnificently named World Spay Day?

All that made me smile, so I looked further ahead in the calendar. Now I have to decide whether to celebrate British Pie week, beginning on March 4; Dog Theft Awareness Day on March 14; National Black Pudding Day on March 18; or Wear A Hat Day (I kid you not) on March 28.

Then I checked out some birthdates. I know my birthday falls on St Matthew’s Day, but I’m delighted to learn it also coincides with Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day. How novel, I must remember to hug a Pole!

My friend Bill shares his birthday with St George and William Shakespeare – but I bet he doesn’t know it’s also National Macaron Day! (Not to be confused with macaroons, they don’t have a special day – yet.)

If it’s your birthday on Sept 4, you can celebrate Eat an Extra Dessert Day. April 4? It’s International Carrot Day! National Smile Month begins on May 16. You could have a ball in June with National Fish and Chip Day on the 7th, World Gin Day on the 8th, swiftly followed by National Beer Day on June 15th.

I could go on; there are awareness days for just about everything. I vote we should have a Hurry Up Springtime Day. Ed. (Image: Bich Tran, Pexels.com)

Join the no-resolution revolution!

I’m not making any New Year resolutions this time round, it’s always so boringly predictable when I break them!

But here at the AMP we resolve to continue to represent and support all our members during the coming year.

And, of course, we wish you all a happy, and, probably more importantly, a healthy 2024 and beyond.  Ed. (Image: pexels-freestocksorg)