Nicholas de Piro writes:

Yes, of course, I can clearly remember Elizabeth Bower, as she was known in the late 1950s. This exceptional lady was my boss when I got my first job at five pounds a week on the night editorial staff of the Times of Malta under Tom Hedley. Happy days!

Elizabeth was born on March 26, 1933. She died of pneumonia on August 3, 2018, aged 85.

Elizabeth, whose journalistic career could almost be called legendary not only for her courage but also for her reliability, got her early training through the ardour of her aunt Mabel Strickland who controlled, expanded and nourished The Times with unqualified success. Under Mabel, Elizabeth, her tall and good-looking niece, was fired with enthusiasm and audacity. She became a mover: she was Lord Strickland’s granddaughter. Her mother started the famous all-night vigils of prayer which would become both famous and popular.

In order to list some of Elizabeth’s successes I would like to mention her moves into sometimes male-dominated situations: she seemed to like danger. She became Reuters’ first female West Africa correspondent where she was lost, perhaps kidnapped and found unconscious.

Undeterred, her career flourished. She worked for the Foreign office and the BBC. She smuggled out of Russia her interview with Solzhenitzyn. There is so much more to say about her and she definitely deserves to be remembered.