Obituary: Tim King, the News reporter onboard HMS Vanguard when it ran aground and who interviewed some very famous names

Here, Bob Hind - who writes a nostalgia column in the News’ Weekend magazine - recalls Tim’s life.

If there was one thing Tim was famous for, it was being on board the Royal Navy’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard, when she left Portsmouth Dockyard for the breakers’ yard in August 1960.

He also managed to have a short interview with Ike Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944, on his last visit to Portsmouth in August 1963.

Tim was born in Portsmouth on May 8, 1936 as Malcolm Trevor King. His school friends called him Tim, it appears.

His mother died when Tim was four and his father, who was in the Royal Navy, died when Tim was 21. After his mother died he was raised by his grandmother. He attended Boundary Oak school and later the Portsmouth Grammar School where he excelled. He was offered a place at Oxford University which he declined because his heart was set on a career in journalism.

Tim joined the Evening News as a cub reporter in 1954 and was soon making a name for himself, although things were not made easy for new recruits to the newspaper industry. The then editor would give reporters short shrift if their designated day’s jobs never came up to scratch.

Tim was rebuked for catching a Southdown bus rather than a Corporation bus which was a few pennies cheaper. He had to pay the difference out of his own pocket.

As to being on board HMS Vanguard, Tim told me he was on the bridge with the Queen’s Harbourmaster and the Senior Pilot. Being the only journalist on board, his brief was to write a colourful feature for next day’s paper.

In Tim’s own words: ‘Everything was going well until Vanguard began to slew off course and that started as we passed Middle Slip Jetty, where at one time Vanguard was veering towards an aircraft carrier - HMS Centaur.

'By the time we were passing South Railway Jetty, Vanguard’s immediate fate was sealed. The Admiralty harbour tugs Antic and Capable were simply not powerful enough, despite desperately working in unison to try to drag the bows to starboard.

‘Only a split second decision by Senior Pilot Roy Ottley prevented carnage among the hundreds of holidaymakers lining the walls at Point, who simply waved back at sailors on the fo’csle desperately shouting at them to run for their lives.

‘Roy Ottley remembered that the old floating bridge chains had been left after the car ferry service ceased and ordered: “Let go starboard anchor!”, timing it so that the flukes grabbed the chains and hauled the bows away from where they were pointing directly at the pub and the massed crowds.’

While all this was going on, Tim was writing his report. He placed it in a canister, weighted it with a brass plug ripped from a cabin, wrapped the story around with wire cable and tossed it over the side to an Evening News photographer in a press boat. Luckily he caught it and, rushing back to Stanhope Road, it made that day’s edition.

Vanguard was aground for 45 minutes and the ocean-going tugs Samsonia and Bustler that were to take her to the Faslane scrapyard, in Scotland, had to be brought in from Spithead to free 46,000 tons of armour from the putty.

It was a close call. Another 10 minutes and it was estimated the fast falling tide would have swung the stern around 90 degrees, blocking the harbour entrance.

Another great story came when Tim was in the Guildhall when Dwight D ‘Ike' Eisenhower made a return visit to the city in August 1963.

Tim just happened to pass an ante-room where the former President of the USA was resting. Tim entered and politely asked if he could have five minutes with the great man, which was agreed.

Tim asked about the decision for the start of the D-Day operation 19 years earlier.

Tim told me: ‘I just asked him what his order was. Ike looked up and told Tim that he decided at a moment and said: “OK, let’s go.”

Tim also wrote Nelson’s Column, a personal view of what was occurring in the Royal Navy in which Tim served during his National Service days. He served from 1957 until 1960 with three years in reserve.

Some of Tim’s colleagues at the Evening News were Mike Knipe, Trevor Fishlock and Peter Michel, who all went from humble beginnings at the Evening News to work worldwide for national newspapers. Peter Michel became the Sports Editor for Southern Television.

After the June elections of 1970, Tim was in the Bugle pub in Hamble as a member of the Royal Yachting Association. It was at this time he managed to have a few words with the then new Prime Minister Ted Heath.

Tim told me: ‘One of the yachties told me that Ted Heath had moved his yacht, Morning Cloud, to the Royal Southern Yacht Club. Reporters in my day were trained to file such snippets to memory.

‘It was Friday, I knew the Round The Island Race was starting from Cowes at 7.15am and gambled he would relax after his election victory, pursuing his passion for sailing.

‘At dawn, I stood on the Fairey Marine pontoon and waited. Shortly after, to my delight, the familiar figure, wearing a dark suit and clutching a bottle of Champagne, walked down the gangway followed by a detective trying to look the part in rig of the day.

'I approached the PM – in today’s tight security I’d certainly have been arrested – and introduced myself. For the next five minutes he was exclusively mine.

‘As we strolled along the pontoon, he told me: “When I’m sailing I leave politics out. My main worry is making sure my crews get up early.”

‘But politics promptly caught him on the hop because Morning Cloud lay outboard of a yacht owned by a doctor, whose permission he asked to go across.

‘Doctors had been in bitter dispute with the outgoing Labour Government over pay, and Dr John Stevenson said: “I must warn you that you’re lying next to a doctor and I don’t know whether we’re friendly or not.”

'The PM kept an even keel and said: “We’ve been discussing doctors’ pay, but I don’t know the answer yet.”

‘Morning Cloud headed into The Solent… and then came the icing on the cake.

'The nationals finally cottoned on and a boat loaded with Fleet Street’s finest came down river. They saw me and chorused: “Where’s Ted?”

“Probably in Cowes by now. You’ll never catch him in that,” I gleefully shouted back.

‘Reporters cherish those moments.’

Tim also interviewed two other prime ministers. He chatted to Harold Wilson at a Labour Party gathering on South Parade Pier in 1967 and to Portsmouth-born Jim Callaghan when he met trades union officials at the Plessey factory at Titchfield in 1977.

Tim enjoyed travelling around Europe with his wife Carolyn in a caravan. There was not a country in Europe that was not visited and even northern Europe was chosen one year when Tim and Carolyn visited Denmark. When in Croatia they crossed the border with Poland on foot just to say they had been there.

Tim also excelled in languages, speaking fluent German and French with a smattering of several other European languages. He also had a massive model railway layout.

In the 1970s Tim left the News and joined the Southampton Echo where he made a great impression. After leaving the Echo he taught journalism at Highbury Technical College.

Tim leaves his wife Carolyn and three children, Jonathan, Stefan and Suzanne.

Tim’s funeral will be held at Portchester Crematorium, Tuesday. April 4, at 1pm.

Tim King. Born May 8, 1936, died March 15, 2023 aged 86.