David Mathew

“Big Dave” Mathew was a highly accomplished Australian journalist who mastered a variety of reporting and editing jobs in a long career.

Because he was a quiet, unassuming type he may not have got the accolades and recognition he deserved. But those who worked closely with him knew his worth and valued him highly.

I first knew him in the late 1950s and early 1960s when he was one of four reporters in the general news team in Washington led by the legendary Pat Heffernan. In such a small reporting group everyone had to pull their weight and Dave did so, although most of the overseas assignments with the president usually went to Pat or his able deputy Ralph Harris. Dave probably still had a corporate connection at that time with AAP, a Reuters shareholder, and in 1962 or 63 he left Washington to return to his home town of Melbourne to be AAP’s diplomatic correspondent, concentrating on ANZUS links at a time when Kennedyites worried about falling dominoes in South East Asia. But Oz was too small to contain him for more than a few years.

Dave returned to the U.S. capital and Reuters in about 1968 and I can vouch for his excellent work when I had an editing job there in 1969-71. He covered press conferences, kept the bureau file running through weekends when he was often the lone White House man on duty, and could churn out news analyses speedily on any subject. I remember one Saturday during the Nixon presidency when Vietnam was the raging issue and Dickie decided to hold a press conference at short notice. It ran to 20 questions in half an hour. Dave covered it alone for Reuters and didn’t rely much if anything on the transcript that came out several hours later. I got hit with the same problem with LBJ while he was visiting New York a few years earlier and found it an absolute nightmare but Dave had good shorthand and an orderly mind and sailed through with his usual aplomb.

Dave decided to move on in 1971 and transferred to London where he and his family set up home at Epsom, near the famous racecourse and close to Tattenham Corner - but the view of the horses was wasted on him as he had little interest. Dave did sterling work for several years as senior sub (night editor) in the London Bureau, fielding a lot of difficult stories. LB had special pressures in those days with staff thin on the ground at night and the Fleet Street nationals breaking a lot of scandal stories about Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Lord Lambton, Marcia Williams et al. After a few years Dave moved to the World Desk where he became a strong filer and master of the routing codes, knowing exactly where to send stories around the world. He always had a great eye for incongruous leads - the latter talent he continued in retirement, keeping fellow retirees abreast of the many bad leads he came across in his wide readings of the international press.

In retirement Dave settled in Sarasota, a very attractive part of Florida where he did some offshore fishing in his boat that he often moored at the bottom of his garden. He and Hilda also took a liking to cruising in ocean liner, usually in Pacific and Asian waters. ■