Bill Deedes, legendary 'Telegraph' editor, and former cabinet minister, dies aged 94

Bill Deedes, exceptional soldier, trusted cabinet minister and Grand Old Man of Fleet Street, has died. He was 94. Friends said that Lord Deedes, an MP for 25 years and a journalist for three quarters of a century, died at about 7pm last night at his home in Aldington, Kent. He was said to have been suffering from a chest infection, but in the end died of heart failure.

Hailed as a hero by colleagues and loved by readers, Bill Deedes, as he preferred to be known, died in harness. Sources said that although he had told friends two weeks ago that he could no longer write his Notebook column, he "rallied" on Wednesday and began to write next week's piece. Half way through it, he faltered, and died last night.

Bill Deedes was born on 1 June 1913 and brought up at the family home of Saltwood Castle. Educated at Harrow, he became a journalist after his father suffered heavy financial losses from the Wall Street Crash of 1929, joining The Morning Post in 1931 before it was subsumed into The Daily Telegraph in 1937.

Charles Moore, a former Telegraph editor who joined when Bill Deedes was himself editor, described him as, "the epitome of the newspaper journalist ... He had twice as much experience as anyone else, and three times as much as me." Moore said that Bill Deedes, who never wrote with malice, was at his best as a reporter, "and like all good witnesses he didn't get in the way of the evidence. He had very little ego; he never showed off, he was always on the side of the reader."

Friends agreed that the greatest period of Bill Deedes' gigantic career came after he "retired" as editor in 1986 at the age of 72, to be succeeded by Max Hastings. "He travelled to more than 50 of the most dangerous countries in the world for us," said Moore.

A classic demonstration of his commitment to his trade came when Bill Deedes filed after suffering a stroke while in India covering the 2001 earthquake, telling a colleague from his hospital bed: "For someone of my generation, it's better to go down in action than to fall over on a golf course." The reporter famously inspired one of Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated characters, William Boot in his Fleet Street novel, Scoop.

Moore said his colleague was more comfortable reporting than in politics. "He loved events but he loved to observe them more than lead them. Even as a politician he was not partisan."

His biographer, Stephen Robinson, agreed his subject's "glory days" were after he "assigned himself on the road" as a reporter. Before that, however, he had been "most proud" of his career as a soldier in the Second World War, gaining a Military Cross "to his surprise" before being elected as MP for Ashford in 1950. Twelve years after entering the Commons, Harold Macmillan elevated him into the Cabinet. "My heart sank," Bill Deedes said modestly, and in 1974 he became editor of The Daily Telegraph, the first person to serve as a national newspaper editor and a cabinet minister. Made a Peer in 1986, he was loved by Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis, whose relationship with the Fleet Street giant inspired the Dear Bill letter in Private Eye.

Last night, Baroness Thatcher said: "He managed to appeal to new generations just as effectively as he did to earlier ones." Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said: "Few have served journalism and the British public for so long at such a high level of distinction, and with such a popular following."

Bill Deedes outlived his wife, Hilary Branfoot, who died in 2004, but is survived by a son and two daughters.

His biographer described his most recent column (3 August), characteristically on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, as "one of the best things he ever wrote".