Sir David English (26 May 1931 – 10 June 1998) was a British journalist and newspaper editor, best known for his two-decade editorship of the Daily Mail.
[3][2] His father having died in 1930, young David developed a close relationship with his grandfather, Alf, who instilled in him a love of newspapers.
David's mother, Kitty, was Assistant to the Post Master General in Bournemouth who was keen to see her son attend university, and upon learning that he would rather work in journalism, emphasised the negative aspects of that profession, in an attempt to dissuade him.
However, aged 16 and encouraged by Alf, he joined the local Christchurch Times and then had a brief period with the News in Portsmouth, moving to London before he was 20.
[3][5] At one point he worked at the left-wing Reynold's News and Sunday Citizen and, out of a burning desire to generate a front-page headline, garnered significant attention for attempted mail theft.