Tributes paid to former Rutland & Stamford Mercury and Grantham Journal reporter who was mentor to many

Tributes have been paid to a long-serving former Stamford and Grantham journalist who was a mentor to generations of young reporters.

Lyndon Whittaker, who worked at the Melton Times newspaper for 12 years from 1988, died aged 81 after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in September last year.

Many of his former colleagues and friends gathered for a celebration of Lyndon’s life at the Wheatsheaf pub in Oakham on May 28.

Lyndon was much more impressed by the singer Frank Ifield at the city’s Embassy club than his support act, ‘The Fab Four’, who of course went on to worldwide fame a year later following their first UK number one.

He wrote in his review that the Beatles ‘quite frankly failed to excite me’, that they ‘sounded as though everyone was trying to make more noise than the others’ and that Love Me Do ‘was tolerable’.

His wife of 46 years, Rosie, said: “Lyndon always laughed that he was more embarrassed about his praise for Frank Ifield than his condemnation of the Beatles.

"In 1969 he interviewed John Lennon and Yoko at the Amsterdam Hilton during their Bed-in for peace. He didn’t mention his 1962 review to John.”

Born in Loughborough during an air raid, he grew up in Peterborough and was a keen cricketer and boxer.

Lyndon left school aged 15 and learned shorthand and typing at Peterborough Technical College before joining the Standard as a trainee reporter.

He went on to work at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, the St Neots office of Cambridge Evening News and the Rutland & Stamford Mercury before joining the Melton Times.

During his time working at Melton, Lyndon covered the visit to the town railway station by his old friend John Major ahead of the 1992 General Election – the pair greeted each other warmly and Lyndon was delighted that the young MP he got to know well in Huntingdon had gone on to become Prime Minister.

Lyndon retired in 2004 after reporting for the Grantham Journal and back at the Stamford Mercury for a short period.

Rosie said: “So many journalists have told me that ‘Lyndon was my mentor’ and he was mine too when I used to sit next to him at the Peterborough Standard.”

He married Rosie in 1979 and the couple moved to Oakham in 1986.

He loved his real ale, particularly a pint of Adnams at Southwold, and had a strong passion for jazz music – he enjoyed three trips to New Orleans to listen to his favourite artists.

Lyndon played petanque for more than 30 years and for 11 years he was chairman of the Rutland and District Petanque League, playing for the White Lion at Whissendine, as well as several other teams.

Rosie added: “Lyndon’s was a life of fulfilment, contentment and fun, with wonderful times spent with good friends and family, playing petanque, listening to music and enjoying life with a beer or a glass of wine in the garden or by a roaring fire.”

Lyndon also leaves his Melton Mowbray-based son, Steven, daughter-in-law Sandra, grandchildren Sarah, Lynne and Martyn, plus four great-grandchildren.

Written by Nick Rennie.