An ‘old-school proper journalist and gentleman’ helped write his own obituary, leaving notes on his life at his East Devon home.
Bill Fenwick, who worked on the Plymouth-based Western Morning News for many years, died on November 28, 2025, at his Woodbury home, aged 98.
When daughters and son, Sue, Sally and Rob, were sorting out various papers after their dad’s death they came across notes he had written in 2019, setting out details of his eventful life.
Journalist Bill Fenwick interviewed The Beatles when they performed at Exeter’s ABC cinema in the early 1960s. Photo: with permission.
Exeter-born William John Fenwick studied at a Heavitree primary school and Hele’s School before signing indentures as a junior reporter on the local evening paper, the Express and Echo.
Early in 1944 he was interviewed and accepted for the Royal Navy’s scheme to train skippers to land craft on D-Day beaches. However, that invasion to took place in June, so he and other applicants weren’t required.
Instead, approaching his 18th birthday, he joined the Navy’s RDAR branch, starting his training in a former Butlins holiday camp at Skegness, where the old sign over the main entrance stated: “Our true intent is for your delight.”
He served in Plymouth Devonport, Portsmouth and Ceylon, where he joined the aircraft carrier HMS Glory. During the ship’s visit to Hong Kong he contracted tuberculosis. Following treatment in Singapore he was sent home on a hospital ship, convalescing for 12 months in hospitals in Dartford, Kent, and Exeter.
He kept a diary recounting his time served on HMS Glory, and this document is now retained in Imperial War Museum archives.
Returning to the Express and Echo, he worked in East Devon and Dorset before being appointed as chief reporter in the Exeter district office of the Western Morning News, a post he held until his retirement in about 1990. He worked with several editors, including Brian MacArthur, who went on to become the founding Editor-in-Chief of Today before holding senior posts on the Sunday Times, Times and Daily Telegraph.
Journalist Bill Fenwick was a stickler for fair and accurate reporting. Photo: with permission.
He was a member of the Rugby Writers Association, and for many years he reported at the Exeter County Ground on rugby union and speedway.
He also interviewed The Beatles when they performed at Exeter’s ABC cinema in the early 1960s.
He frequently travelled to Normandy, reporting on the twinning links between Devon and Calvados. He wrote that he was privileged to accompany Devon D-Day veterans on their anniversary visits to the invasion beaches.
Away from journalism, he helped run an Exeter youth group, volunteered for the Samaritans, enjoyed sailing on the River Exe and, following his retirement, played bowls at Honiton, Whipton, Belmont and ISCA.
Rob Fenwick recalled: “As a child, I routinely went to bed at night to the sound of dad on the phone downstairs, providing copy to local TV, radio and national press. He had a superb instinct for a local story that might have legs, and he became known as the linage king of the south-west.
“Dad was fundamentally a decent man, slow to temper and valued for his sage advice to friends and family during difficult times.
“He enjoyed a very happy 58 years of marriage to our mum Margaret, who passed away in 2010.”
Among former colleagues paying tribute was Jo Earlam (formerly Bishop), who worked for several years in the Western Morning News Exeter office.
She said: “My favourite saying of Bill’s, especially when we were up against meeting a deadline, was: ‘Never mind the quality, feel the width!’
“That said, he was a stickler for fair and accurate reporting, and he always stuck up for his team of us Exeter reporters.
“He was very kind to me when I faced personal problems. It was a very upsetting time, and he gave me wise counsel, sympathy and understanding.
“He was an old-school proper journalist and gentleman.”
A funeral service for Bill Fenwick, who leaves a son, two daughters, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, was held at St Swithun’s Church in Woodbury, where he was a sidesman for several years.
Interment followed in the village cemetery, where he was reunited with his beloved wife Margaret.
