It taught, he said, "the accurate use of words and the ability to concentrate on difficult subjects [but] it did not stimulate our creative powers (if any) or even our curiosity".

He saw action in France in 1940, then spent most of the rest of the war training troops in Inveraray in western Scotland.

[4] In 1944 he returned to The Guardian as assistant editor,[5] then in 1948 he went to The Times as a special writer, chiefly on foreign affairs.

[3] Pringle was tempted to go to Australia by the challenge of editing The Sydney Morning Herald, which was then considered the country's best newspaper, but also for health reasons: for a year from early 1950 he underwent treatment for tuberculosis[6] and, for the rest of his life, survived on one working lung.

[1] He resigned after disagreements with the managing director, Sir Warwick Fairfax, and retired from full-time journalism.

In a democracy a newspaper may be doing a useful service if it argues, fairly and logically, a view which may subsequently prove to be wrong.