Barry Wigmore

Posted: May 11th, 2012

BARRY Wigmore, veteran Fleet Street and Daily Mirror reporter, died in July 2011 aged 65.

He joined the Mirror in 1977 from the London Evening News and served as a “fireman” at home and abroad, reporting from war-torn places like Sarajevo, and was the Mirror’s man in New York for almost two years.

When Richard Stott became editor of Today in 1993, he poached Barry as his U.S. editor. It lasted 18 months before the title folded.

Barry already had a reputation as a the consummate, reliable professional and decided to stay on in the U.S. as a freelance. It was a good choice. He was never short of work from all the London titles, pop and heavy. It took him all over the Americas and the Caribbean.

Barry and his wife Pauline lived first in Connecticut and later in Florida. Five years ago they returned home to be closer to their children Paul and Lisa, and their grandchildren.

Subsequently, Barry was diagnosed with the rare, degenerative disease multiple system atrophy. He never once complained during a long illness, said Pauline.

They had been married for 45 years. In 1978 Barry shared the UK Press Gazette Reporter of the Year national award, along with the Mirror team who worked on the Joyce McKinney “Mormon Sex in Chains” story, a classic Fleet Street caper.