Lynn White

Posted: February 8th, 2024

LYNN WHITE, whose career took her from Mirror Magazine to the Sunday Mirror subs’ room and finally the Daily Mirror back bench, died in London’s Royal Free Hospital on February 6 [2024], following a short and brutal battle with cancer. She was 78. This much-loved former Mirror news and features executive had been struggling with a number of health issues. Lynn’s funeral will be for family and close friends, but a memorial service at St Bride’s is planned in the summer.

With thanks to Stella Bingham: “The Equal Pay Act was still years away. The Sex Discrimination Act not due for six years.  Women weren’t allowed to stand at the bar in El Vinos until a Court of Appeal decision in 1982. 1968 wasn’t the most promising year for a young, attractive and ambitious woman to start working on male-dominated Fleet Street. But that is what Lynn White chose to do. She went on to earn respect, admiration and success. And never regretted her decision.

“But everyone has to start somewhere and Lynn’s career began on the BMJ [British Medical Journal] before she moved on to the monthly magazine Nova as a sub. When Mirror Magazine began recruiting in 1968, Nova was a rich hunting ground and Lynn moved across with many colleagues. After Mirror Magazine’s closure, Lynn joined the Sunday Mirror, then the Daily Mirror as a features sub. A brief spell as assistant features editor was followed by a move to news subs. And finally to the back bench as copy taster under night editor Jon Moorhead. She was the first woman to hold that job. Lynn took redundancy in 2008 but had been too successful in that role to be easily replaced and was persuaded to return once or twice. Sadly, her leaving dinner at Scott’s restaurant was not repeated on subsequent departures.

“Watford was Lynn’s home town. She stayed close to her family and is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, her nieces and nephew and their families. But Lynn lived in north London for most of her adult life, in a house she’d bought in the days when her father had to guarantee her mortgage payments – unnecessarily.

“Lynn had a true gift for friendship. She was genuinely interested in everyone she met, and their dogs, and their children, and their problems, and almost everyone she met became her friend. Occasionally her trust was exploited but she carried making friends, undeterred.

“Sadly, the last few years of Lynn’s life were marred by a range of chronic ailments. But she was always convinced that she’d get better and that her life would return to normal.”