Ewen Balfour: Influential public relations executive in government and the arts world

Ewen Balfour was the éminence grise of invisible networking. He operated as a benign Cardinal Richelieu in the world of the arts, in a career that spanned journalism, government service and public relations. He was quietly but enormously effective behind the scenes, in charge of public affairs at the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Philharmonic, before becoming a consultant at the Brunswick Group. It has been said that half of the people within the remit of the Arts Council owe him their jobs.

Grey eminence perhaps, but there was nothing grey about the man. Cheerful, clever and loyal, those who worked with him soon came to like, trust and often rely on him. Uninterested in money or power for himself, he had no envy of the rich and powerful. This was perhaps the secret of why the great and the good took him into their confidence.

His networking skills became evident early on when, after three years as a junior reporter on the Stroud News and Journal, he left the paper seeming to know everyone in Gloucestershire. Today, his contact book would be worth a king's ransom, made up of a dazzling and sometimes bewildering mix of names from all walks of life and professions. The name of Placido Domingo appears just before Plowden Tree Services, while his favourite Pastie shop in Cornwall (Lost Withiel Bakery, called in advance to ensure hot fare) is listed on the same page as the Prime Minister – name changed accordingly to fit the incumbent.

Balfour was born in Aberdeenshire in 1946, but moved south at the age of his eight when his father took over a bakery in Wiltshire. He was educated at Swindon High School before starting out in journalism. After working on provincial newspapers, in 1968 Balfour became a press officer with the Central Office of Information.

He was then seconded, via the Foreign Office, to the Central Treaty Organisation in Ankara, Turkey, which included side trips to the Lebanon and Iran. Many of his friends were mystified by what he actually did in Turkey and concluded that he was a spy. They were probably right. Although in many ways ideally suited to the profession – very few people were allowed into his private life – he once said that although he loved Turkey, he did not enjoy his job abroad. "I was obliged to lie to friends."

Posted back to the COI in London, one of his tasks was to promote knowledge about the role of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The position was so unknown that on a PR trip to Scotland someone asked him if the Ombudsman was a new model of Volvo. "Ewen raised the profile enormously," said Sir Cecil Clothier, Parliamentary Ombudsman at the time. "He transformed a little known bureaucratic office into something talked and written about. He knew absolutely everybody. When we went to obscure radio stations in south London he even seemed to know the tea ladies by name."

After three years as press director of the British Museum, he was persuaded to take on the challenging job of director of public affairs for the Royal Opera House, beset with problems at the time: it was about to be closed for redevelopment, a process facing endless delays and opposition, and there were the usual difficulties over funding. By being straightforward and reliable, Balfour developed excellent relations with the press and succeeded in taking some of the poison out of the internal politics.

But new management under General Director Jeremy Isaacs failed to appreciate his approach and he was fired – despite a petition signed by the country's leading musicians, including the musical director of the Royal Opera itself, Bernard Haitinck. It was an unhappy time, the low point in a distinguished career. Balfour's departure heralded a calamitous period of press relations for the Opera House.

In the corrupting worlds of journalism, government and public relations, he managed to keep his integrity as well as a youthful idealism. Conservative in his daily life, with a small "c", he was enormously tolerant and liberal. People of all sorts appealed to him. Quietly eccentric, with a cackling laugh that shook his whole body, he enjoyed human idiosyncrasy in others. He particularly enjoyed putting unlikely people together, and held that his favourite dinner party was one where a punk with a green-and-purple Mohican sat next to a bishop in the full Monty.

Balfour took to riding a bicycle everywhere long before it was the politically correct form of transport, and kept suits in strategically placed offices all over London. He was famous for showing up with a trouser leg still tucked into a sock. One friend who witnessed him dining in black tie with Diana, Princess of Wales in the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera saw him later the same night unlocking his bicycle to cycle home to Balham, where he lived for 30 years. "I'd never move from Balham – gateway to the South!"

He also (under protest) would smuggle a heavily disguised Princess Diana, along with the Duchess of York, to watch first nights of the Royal Ballet from the wings. This went against royal protocol and could have cost him his job. At one time Balfour was under consideration to be press secretary to the Prince of Wales, but gently let it be understood that he thought he could me more useful outside of the Palace of St James's than in.

After handling the press for the Japan Festival in 1991, he went on to work for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, during which time he became close friends with Sir George Solti. He also served on the boards of various bodies concerning the arts, including the Guildhall School of Music, English Touring Opera, The Sixteen and the Hackney Empire.

Balfour then entered the private world of corporate PR as a consultant with the powerful Brunswick Group, working alongside Sarah Brown, wife of Gordon Brown. "The way people usually go about succeeding in a large corporate PR company like ours is to bring in big clients and then manage their accounts," said Alan Parker, chairman and founder of the company.

"Ewen didn't bring in any big clients and was frankly useless at running an account. He employed a freewheeling approach – a way of living more than making money. But he became part of the DNA of the company and seemed to be involved in everything. It was the twinkle that made it happen." One client remembers being taken by Balfour behind the scenes of the Royal Ballet where the prima ballerina Darcey Bussell gave the client a pair of her dancing shoes; he carried them around in his briefcase for six months.

Balfour died three weeks after being diagnosed with bone and lung cancer. Good-natured to the end, he was realistic about his fate, and careful to express his gratitude to the nursing staff at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. At the end he asked his sister, Jean, to bring in a painting he had bought to hang in the holiday house they were building together in Cornwall. When asked what he was thinking about on the final day of his life, he said: "Wonderful thoughts about Cornwall."

Christopher Robbins

Ewen Balfour, public relations executive: born Ellon, Aberdeenshire 30 November 1942; reporter, Stroud News and Journal 1961-65; reporter, Swindon Evening Advertiser 1965-67; staff, Central Office of Information 1968-79, seconded to British embassy, Ankara 1972-75; Press Officer, Arts Ministry 1979-83; Head of Public Affairs, British Museum 1983-86; Director of Public Affairs, Royal Opera House 1986-91; Director of Public Relations, Japan Festival 1991; Head of Corporate Affairs, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1992-96; Partner, The Brunswick Group 1993-2008; died London 10 December 2008.