Life After Reuters - Brian Mooney

When Brian Mooney took early retirement from Reuters in 2000 at the age of 50, he certainly didn’t slow down.

Mooney, an award-winning correspondent who worked in editorial and management at Reuters for nearly 30 years, headed off to walk over 1,500 miles from Walsingham in Norfolk to Santiago de Compostela. He has been striding out each year ever since.

He has covered thousands of miles on foot, walking from his Essex home to Rome and back, and in stages from Liverpool to Gibraltar, crossed France 10 times, Britain three times, Spain twice, and trekked through swathes of Germany and Ireland.

In between, Brian published six books – on walking around Essex and to Rome and back, on leaders in history, a literary biography of Chindit, Hindu monk and author Frank Baines, and, together with the late Barry Simpson, he penned the highly critical Reuters – Breaking News. He wrote freelance for various newspapers and magazines, including the Times, Telegraph, FT, and Tablet.

He has also worked in PR and media relations, notably for the oligarch-owned Russian Alfa Bank, for a mining project in Bangladesh, and for an investment company building logistics in India.

Mooney has served as an elected councillor in the City of London Corporation for 27 years, playing an active role on its planning committee as the skyline of the “Square Mile” was transformed with a cluster of iconic new office towers.

With the ancient title of Chief Commoner for two years, he was a member of the mayor’s team and titular head of the City’s legislative body, the Court of Common Council.

He was awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours in 2024 for services to the community in both the City of London and his hometown of Coggeshall, where he organises a volunteer litter picking group. ■