Edward Welsh, who built a career that took him from a NCTJ traineeship on the Grimsby Evening Telegraph to senior roles at The Sunday Times and The Times, has died at the age of 63.
When Welsh began his career at the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, the paper was known for producing ambitious young reporters who leapt straight on to the nationals.
“I will always treasure my memories of him as a friend and fellow journalist, sitting opposite him when I first joined the Grimsby Evening Telegraph,” said Toby Helm, a trainee at the paper along with Edward.
The former political editor of the Observer, now board director of Best for Britain, remembers Edward’s “irrepressible positivity, his big, wide grin, his endless jibes, the noise he made, his delightful shows of indignation when teased. He was one of those people you would always be happy and feel better about life for when he entered the room”.
Welsh joined The Sunday Times shortly before his 24th birthday, working across news and then the travel section. He later recalled the excitement of national reporting tempered by concerns over the industry’s evolving interpretation of the public interest.
After leaving the paper in 1991, Welsh developed a successful freelance career, writing for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Mail on Sunday and the Express.
Alongside journalism, Welsh completed a Master’s degree in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics between 1994 and 1996. In 1995 he spent time at the Carter Center in Atlanta within its peace and social-equality programmes under former US president Jimmy Carter.
In 1997 he joined The Times, where he worked as deputy diary editor, deputy foreign editor and later local government correspondent.
Bronwen Maddox, former foreign editor of The Times and now director and chief executive of Chatham House, said: “He was a witty, sardonic, endlessly hardworking and extremely kind person and that was a welcome presence on the foreign desk.
“As a desk editor, I admired his determination to do spells of reporting, so that he could show the reporters that he could do it too.”
Another contemporary at the Times Michael, now Lord, Gove remembers that “Ed was huge fun, and a delight to work with. Warm, witty and endlessly curious. He was the loveliest colleague.”
From 2002 until 2024 Welsh held senior communications roles across public and regulatory bodies, including the London Assembly, the Local Government Association, Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). He was widely regarded as a supportive leader, and many of those he mentored went on to senior communications posts across both the public and private sectors.
Welsh came from a family of print, broadcast and B2B journalists. He was the son of Tom Welsh, former News Chronicle and Guardian journalist, editor of the North Western Evening Mail and co-author and long-time editor of Essential Law for Journalists (with Walter Greenwood). His sister Cheryl Campbell worked for the Lancashire Evening Post, Tyne Tees and TV-am, and I, his identical twin brother, served as editor of the RIBA Journal, Property Week and Travel Trade Gazette.
Welsh joined his long-term partner, Tony Mcleod, in a civil partnership in 2009. The couple adopted their two sons, Amari and Jayden, in 2013.
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