[1] He was a direct descendant of John Walter (1738/9 – 1812), the founder of The Times newspaper, whilst his mother was a cousin of former Home Secretary William Whitelaw.
His father was a district officer[2] in the British Colonial Service, and was mostly based in Nigeria in West Africa.
He then joined BBC Television, first on Newsnight as a political producer for the late Professor Robert Mckenzie.
[3] In 1982, he reported on the Falklands War, and accompanied the-then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, on overseas assignment as she visited the islands at the end of that year.
Although he failed to take the seat, he continued campaigning for the Liberal Democrats, becoming chair of his local party in Kingston-upon-Thames.
[6] His former boss at ITN, and 18 years his senior, the Political Editor Julian Haviland, himself described by colleagues as one of the nicest people to have ever worked in television journalism,[7] said of him: "The man I think of first was in rare measure gentle, kind, modest, loyal, generous... a joy to work with".