Long before the taunt of “fake news” put honest reporters on trial, my wife, Gwyneth Henderson, who has died aged 80, was championing their cause. As head for two decades of the BBC World Service’s training department and subsequently in influential roles elsewhere, she was driven by a cast-iron commitment to the highest standards of public interest journalism.
Gwyneth was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, to John Henderson, a civil engineer, and his wife, Catherine (nee Bodycombe). Because of her father’s work, Gwyneth grew up in various places, including Nigeria, where she developed a lifelong interest in Africa. After attending school in St Albans, Hertfordshire, she first trained to be a teacher, and then, in the early 1960s, joined the BBC in London as a studio technician.
