Press & media
Moncrieff, Chris (1 of 12). Oral History of the British Press
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Type
sound
Duration
00:09:26
Shelf mark
C638/20
Subjects
journalists
Recording date
2016-07-13, 2016-08-16, 2016-09-15, 2016-10-19
Recording locations
Interviewee's home, London
Interviewees
Moncrieff, Chris, 1931- (speaker, male)
Interviewers
Wilkinson, Robert (speaker, male)
Abstract
Part 1: Born just outside Derby on 9th September 1931. Remembers watching the green trolleybuses go up and down on the Nottingham Road (Chaddeston). His father took him to Derby County matches and he still goes to their games. He was sent to a girl’s school – Ocktbrook Moravian School. He won a prize for knitting an egg cosy knitted by his sister. When he was about 9 they moved to Borrowash towards Nottingham. Remembers when war was declared. After the girl’s school he was sent to Nottingham High School then Ellesmere College in Shropshire from 1944 to 1948. He had always wanted to work in newspapers. His father as well as his grandfather were scientists and he was disappointed that Chris did not want to follow the family tradition. He was forced into working in a solicitor’s office in Holborn. Whilst there he spent his time writing to newspapers for a job. Eventually he got a job on the Harrogate Herald. Worked there from 1949 to 1953. Still in touch with people he started with. Worked for a while single handed in Thirsk. He was deferred from military service until he was 20. [05:30] Went into the Royal Army Service Corps. Asked to be transferred to the Intelligence Corps and was sent to their base at Uckfield, Sussex. They found out he could do shorthand so he was put into an office at Maresfield. He then put in a request to join the Joint Services School for Languages in Bodmin. He was unsuccessful. His office was where the drafts for people going abroad were done. He put his name down on one of the forms and was drafted to Malaya on a troopship. He was a batman on the ship.
Description
Life story interview with journalist Chris Moncrieff
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