Memorial Service To Be Held For Bob Satchwell

A memorial service for journalist and founding executive director of the Society of Editors Bob Satchwell is to be held at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street.

The service at 11:30 am on 9 September will be conducted by the Rector of St Bride’s, the Reverend Canon Dr Alison Joyce.

A drinks reception following the service is kindly being provided by the family at the Humble Grape at 1 St Bride’s Passage.

Mr Satchwell died aged 72 in March in hospital after developing pneumonia and Covid-19. He had been unwell since suffering a severe stroke in 2017.

Before founding the Society of Editors in 1999, Mr Satchwell was president of the Guild of Editors in 1997 to 1998. He had been chairman of the judges for the British Press Awards and the Northern Ireland Press and Broadcasting Awards, organiser of the Regional Press Awards, a director of the London Press Club and a former board member of the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Among organisations and bodies Mr Satchwell had been a member of were the Editors’ Code Committee, the Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice System, the Cabinet Office Media Emergencies Forum, the Ministry of Justice Information Users’ Group, the Home Office Community Cohesion Media Practitioner Group, the Queen’s Jubilee Communications Committee, the Home Office advisory committee for the review of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, the College of Policing Undercover Policing Oversight Board and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Public Interest in Poverty Issues Advisory Board.

Mr Satchwell began his career as a reporter on the Lancashire Evening Post in 1970, went on to become assistant editor for the News of the World and then edited the Cambridge Evening News from 1984 to 1998.