Ron 'Nobby' Clarke - unassuming, dedicated, wise and funny

Nobby was an unforgettable character. I knew him first in the late sixties when he was bureau chief in Saigon and I was a wet-behind-the-ears new arrival. It was a harrowing time, just after the killing of Reuter correspondents Ron Laramy and Bruce Piggott. Perhaps in reaction to their deaths, Nobby kept a tight rein on news-gathering. This even extended to him subbing nearly all stories filed to London over the whole 24-hour news cycle (he lived in a flat above the office and this meant he worked all hours). When you did the early morning stint, he would come down in his pyjamas, much to the bemusement of the Vietnamese telegraphists, invariably improve the copy with a few deft pencil strokes, and then go back to bed.

A down-to-earth Londoner, Nobby got on well with the mix of staff and newspeople who passed through the office, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Australian or American. He was a steadying hand at times of heightened tension caused by satchel-bomb attacks in the city. Nobby was very solicitous for newcomers. When covering US military action in the jungle, he told me, always try to follow in the footsteps of the biggest soldier in the platoon. That way, you'll know that his foot-prints at least will be safe from land mines and other booby traps.

He found a way of overcoming the constant problem of poor communications in an era when phone landlines were very hit-and-miss and cell phones unheard of. Nobby managed to scrounge some two-way radio sets. These had limited range but meant we could stay in contact with him in the office during overnight rocket attacks and were not chasing our tails in covering the story.

Despite the hardships of covering that war, whenever we met up in later life Nobby always spoke fondly of his time in Vietnam. He was the best type of reporter and editor. Unassuming, dedicated, wise and funny, I will miss him. ■