In the 1960s he gave up a successful career as a newspaper editor to start a news service that would reflect the views of people in newly independent African countries and elsewhere in the developing world.
The only child of a middle-class family, brought up in North London, Ingram was successful immediately after leaving Highgate School at the age of 16 during WW2.
He might have become editor, but his liberal politics and ferocious opposition to apartheid and racism in any form put him at odds with the paper's proprietor, Viscount Rothermere.
A package of six articles, covering everything from politics to healthcare, education and art, copied on a Gestetner machine, was sent out by mail twice a week, Ingram himself stuffing the envelopes alongside a small, overworked staff.
He never name-dropped, but other journalists envied his access to post- Independence African leaders such as Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda, who would listen to Ingram's views on Commonwealth issues, knowing that he understood the politics better than almost anyone else.
For decades he would always walk from his house in a quiet mews in Marylebone to his office and to meetings all over central London, and at a cracking pace.
Right up until the last few months of his life, he would read the newspapers every morning and watch Channel 4 News at 7pm, proud to see one of his Gemini proteges, Lindsey Hilsum, reporting from around the world.
While others denigrated it as a diplomatic talking shop, or an association of rogues, Ingram, like Queen Elizabeth II, believed in the Commonwealth as a force for good.