MEMORIES OF Geoffrey Whitehead
By Peter Hill, Formerly BBC Parliamentary Correspondent

Geoffrey, who died on Christmas Eve aged 90, came to the BBC in 1968, after a period as Whitehall Correspondent for Reuters. He was a hard-nosed, news-gathering reporter who fitted in well with the six-man team packed together into a small office in the Press Gallery of the House of Commons.

There were three lobby correspondents, and three Parliamentary correspondents.  As Deputy Political Editor Geoffrey worked hard to find good political stories and cultivated a circle of senior MPs and cabinet ministers.

Born  in 1934, he attended Steyning Grammar School, and a school in Northumberland, leaving at 15 to work on regional newspapers. Later he took an extra-mural course in international affairs at London University, rounding off his studies in his sixties with a Master’s degree in New Zealand.

He did National Service in the Fleet Air Arm, being commissioned as an Observer flying in Fairey Fireflies and US Avenger aircraft over the Eastern Atlantic, trying to detect submarines through sonar buoys.

Geoffrey  appeared on radio and TV frequently. His TV News reports  came  from a small self-operated TV studio across the road from the Commons. Once before appearing he was combing his hair, leaning over to see his face in the lens of the camera, when they cut to him from the Control Room in TV Centre in Shepherd’s Bush: he never made that mistake again! Geoffrey covered Harold Wilson’s visit to Salisbury, Rhodesia, Britain’s early attempts to join the Common Market, and the years of the Heath government.

It was a great surprise to us all when in 1974 Hardiman Scott announced to us, his fellow correspondents, that Geoffrey was going off to New Zealand  to be Assistant and later Director-General of Radio New Zealand. He had been interviewed there after flying out during a Parliamentary recess, and by all accounts he had excellent references from a Cabinet Minister, Jim Prior, and a member of the Shadow Cabinet. He told me that in his annual BBC interviews he had never been considered suitable for management!

We were sorry to see him go. He had entertained us to summer parties at his home in Brighton, with his wife Eve: surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind the considerable train journey each way on most weekdays.  

After making many changes in New Zealand, and turning  a loss on RNZ’s commercial stations into a healthy surplus,  Geoffrey was appointed to being Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Again, he implemented many changes and recommendations but had a tough time, and only served half his contract. He went back to New Zealand and for seven years was Director of the NZ Historic Places Trust (the local equivalent of our National Trust) ; he always kept in close touch with Maori and aboriginal people. Among his achievements was getting a conservation plan for the Scott Hut in Antarctica. He lived in the northern part of South Island with his wife and partner of nearly 44 years, Faith Barber.

Geoffrey was driven by his ambition, and by his passion for democracy.  He published two books about his time with ABC, and about his fight to maintain public service broadcasting against the pressures of commercialism.

Peter Hill
13 Jan 2025