Ben Lowry: Charlie Warmington was a highly creative and talented writer who will be much missed
Charlie Warmington, who has died aged 75, was a fine journalist.
He was the latest of a number of authors of our popular Roamer column, as we report on page 15.
Charlie was a highly creative man from a talented family. His Jewish mother Gertrude narrowly escaped the holocaust which would kill her father – she left Austria in 1938, the year the Nazis took power there. His father, Theo Warmington, was a doctor from Northern Ireland. Charlie’s late older brother, Alan, also went into medicine.
Charlie studied architecture but decided he did not want to pursue that career, and went into journalism – at which he excelled.
He joined the BBC and became one of its editors and producers.
I knew of Charlie long before I met him – in my early years at this newspaper he submitted his articles by email so I rarely encountered him, but I read his fascinating essays on a range of topics. Later, as editor, I phoned him a few times intending to have a short call but we spoke for up to an hour about everything from war to the weather.
He is having a private cremation – very private. I am sorry not to be able to pay my respects, but maybe he did not want sentimentality or a fuss. It would not surprise me. I noticed that he was generous in his praise about our journalism but if the praise was returned to him, he changed the subject.