Hugh Pain
Hugh Pain: 'Everything is interesting'
Tuesday 09 November 2010
“Everything is interesting”, Ian Jones recalled his friend saying. Kind in an unsentimental way, he was an exceptional person. “It was a privilege to have known him,” Jones said at a memorial service in Fleet Street, London.
Pain (Reuters 1977-2003), pictured, died of lung cancer in hospital near his home in Crete on 25 February aged 69.
Books and literature were central to his life – he cherished an extensive collection of first editions. “He was wonderful company not only for the range and depth of his knowledge but for his sense of humour,” Jones said.
Readings were given by Geoffrey Cornford and Peter Griffiths. Other colleagues at the guild church of St Dunstan-in-the-West who celebrated Pain’s life and mourned his passing were Tony Austin, Richard Balmforth, Allan Barker, John Bartram, David Christian-Edwards, Peter Gregson, Robert Hart, Michael Hughes, Paul Iredale, Roger Jeal, Ian Jones, Geert Linnebank, Jeremy Lovell, Sean Maguire, Barry May, Angus MacSwan, Colin McIntyre, Bernard Melunsky, Ingrid Montbazet, Barry Moody, Brian Mooney, Donald Nordberg, Manfred Pagel, Tim Pearce, Bill Saltmarsh, Len Santorelli, Paul Smurthwaite, Philip Wardle and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.
● Obituary
Obituary: Hugh Pain
Friday 26 February 2010
Pain was in a Reuters armoured Land Rover that ran over an anti-tank mine in Bosnia in January 1993. Both his heels were shattered and he came under fire from a sniper. His dry sense of humour remained intact, however, and he began his report on the incident as follows:
“I had often wondered what it would be like to die.
“Now I know, or near enough to satisfy curiosity,” he wrote from Vitez, Bosnia-Herzegovina under the headline: “The sensation of a huge force...”
“The anti-tank mine that detonated on Monday in the west-central Bosnian town of Gornji Vakuf, where we had gone to report on fighting between Moslems and Croats, had up to three kg (6.6 pounds) of explosive in it.
“It was enough to reduce our armoured Land Rover to a twisted heap of wreckage as it ran over it.
“And more than enough to kill us all, according to British army engineers who inspected it afterwards.
“The good news from the near-death front is that you don't have time to be scared.”
Corinne Dufka, photographer, and Kevin Sullivan, UPI correspondent, were travelling with Pain and were also wounded.
Pain was an avid collector of first edition books and before his war injury a keen tennis player. Previous assignments included Italy, Iran and India. Later, he worked as an editor on the business news unit and other production desks in London including the world desk. He had joined Reuters in 1977 and retired in 2003.
Pain’s elder son Nick said that his father had been in Heraklion hospital since 8 February and was his normal, perfectly lucid self for much of the time.
At around 8:00 pm on Wednesday Pain took his oxygen mask off and said "D'you know, I'm getting really rather bored with this." He died at 5:45 am the following morning.
Burial is on Saturday close to his home in Agia Galini, Crete, where he lived with his wife, Caroline. A memorial service will be arranged later.
● CLICK to read Hugh Pain’s account of being blown up in Bosnia.
