{{Short description|Scottish journalist and editor}} {{Distinguish|John Junor (Jamaican politician)|John Junor (rugby union)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} '''Sir John Donald Brown Junor''' (15 January 1919 – 3 May 1997) was a Scottish journalist. He was [[editor-in-chief]] of the ''[[Sunday Express]]'' from 1954 to 1986,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4458466.stm|title='Top 40' UK journalists honoured|date=22 November 2005|access-date=12 December 2020|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> having previously worked as a columnist there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2002/no3_greatesteditor.htm |title=British Journalism Review Vol. 13, No. 3, 2002 - the greatest editor of them all? |accessdate=2007-03-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223183004/http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2002/no3_greatesteditor.htm |archivedate=23 February 2007 }}</ref> He moved in 1989 to ''[[The Mail on Sunday]]'', where he remained until his death.
Noted for his deliberately provocative views, Junor was described by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP [[Julian Critchley]] as "possibly the best-known Scotsman in England" during the 1980s and as "an ill-natured populist with a taste for common-or-garden abuse"<ref name="independent-obituary">[[Julian Critchley]] (5 May 1997). [https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-sir-john-junor-5568874.html "Obituary: Sir John Junor"]. ''[[The Independent]]''. Retrieved 16 September 2023.</ref>.
==Early life== [[File:North Kelvinside Secondary 354.jpg|right|thumb|North Kelvinside Secondary School in Maryhill, Glasgow, which Junor attended in the 1930s.]] Born in [[Glasgow]] into a "Scottish Presbyterian, respectable working class" family, Junor was raised in what he later described as "a red-stone tenement in Shannon Street in [[Maryhill]]... [in] a two roomed-flat without indoor sanitation", but by his teens he was living with his parents and brothers in a more spacious flat, with three rooms and a kitchen, in Oban Drive.<ref name="TimesObit">"Sir John Junor", ''The Times'', 5 May 1997, p. 23.</ref><ref>John Junor, ''Listening for a Midnight Tram: Memoirs'' (London: Chapmans, 1990), pp. 3-4. {{ISBN|185592501X}}</ref> He attended North Kelvinside Secondary School (later merged into [[Cleveden Secondary School]]) before proceeding to study English Literature at [[University of Glasgow|Glasgow University]].<ref name="TimesObit"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Journalists-backgrounds-final-report.pdf|title=The Educational Backgrounds of Leading Journalists – Page 18: NEWSPAPER EDITORS (25)|work=[[The Sutton Trust]]|date=15 June 2006|access-date=16 September 2023|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202022454/http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Journalists-backgrounds-final-report.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
As a student he was "violently anti-Fascist, anti-Franco, above all anti-Hitler", and in 1938 he became president of the university's Liberal Club.<ref>Junor, ''Listening for a Midnight Tram'', p. 7.</ref> Shortly before graduation, Junor was recruited by the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] activist [[Sir Thomas Glen-Coats, 2nd Baronet#Lady Glen-Coats|Lady Glen-Coats]] to accompany her on a fact-finding tour of the [[Third Reich]]; they reportedly managed to escape Germany only days before the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in September 1939.<ref name=independent-obituary />
During the war Junor had a commission in the [[Fleet Air Arm]], where he edited a station magazine which so impressed the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] he was invited to become the assistant editor of a new magazine intended for the entire branch of the service.<ref name="TimesObit"/><ref name="Worsthorne">[[Peregrine Worsthorne]] [http://www.newstatesman.com/200208120026 "Sympathy for the devil"], ''[[New Statesman]]'', 12 August 2002</ref> After the original choice for editor, [[A. P. Herbert]], declined to take up the role, Junor was appointed in his place and named the magazine ''Flight Deck''.<ref name="TimesObit"/> Following demobilisation, he worked for a time in ''[[The Sun (Sydney)|The Sydney Sun's]]'' London office before joining the ''[[Daily Express]]'' in 1947 as a reporter on a salary of 18 [[Guinea (coin)|guineas]] a week.<ref name="TimesObit"/>
==Journalism== After working at the ''Daily Express'' for six years, Junor was briefly a deputy editor at the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' before, in 1954, joining the ''Sunday Express'', where he was made editor-in-chief and remained for 32 years.<ref name="independent-obituary"/> His ''Sunday Express'' column (which he continued to write in his years as editor-in-chief) was noted for recurrent [[catchphrase]]s, two of them being "pass the sick-bag, Alice" and "I don't know, but I think we should be told". Junor frequently mentioned the small town [[Auchtermuchty]] in [[Fife]].<ref name="independent-obituary"/>
Junor could be brutally forthright in his column. In 1984 he wrote: "[W]ith compatriots like these [the IRA Brighton bombers] wouldn't you rather admit to being a pig than be Irish?" Following complaints that the comment was [[racist]], Junor was censured by the [[Press Council (UK)|Press Council]] in May 1985.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode%3D30527%26sectioncode%3D1 |title=Back Issues 20.05.05 - Press Gazette |accessdate=2010-05-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616102734/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=30527§ioncode=1 |archivedate=16 June 2011 }} Press Gazette</ref>
He was often lampooned in ''Private Eye'', which nicknamed him Sir Jonah Junor and called the ''Daily Express'' building on Fleet Street the Black Lubyanka.
===Contempt of Parliament=== On 24 January 1957, Junor was called to the Bar of the House of Commons to be reprimanded for [[contempt of Parliament]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1957/jan/23/committee-of-privileges-second-report|title=COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES (SECOND REPORT) (Hansard, 23 January 1957)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|date=23 January 1957|access-date=12 December 2020}}</ref> – the last non-politician to be so called.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8537451.stm|title=Law firm 'in contempt' of Commons|date=25 February 2010|access-date=12 December 2020|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> The matter concerned an article about petrol allocation that appeared in the ''Sunday Express'' on 16 December 1956. Junor apologised:
{{cquote|Mr Speaker, I wish to express my sincere and unreserved apologies for any imputations or reflection which I may have cast upon the honour and integrity of the Members of this House in the article which I published in the ''Sunday Express'' of 16th December. At no time did I intend to be discourteous to Parliament. My only aim was to focus attention on what I considered to be an injustice in the allocation of petrol, namely, the petrol allowances given to political parties in the constituencies. In my judgment these allowances were a proper and, indeed, an inescapable subject of comment in a free Press. That was a view which I held then and hold now, Sir, but I do regret, deeply and sincerely, that the manner in which I expressed myself should have been such as to be a contempt of this House. I have nothing more to say. I now leave myself in the hands of this House.}}
==Politics== Ambitious for a parliamentary seat, in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 General Election]] Junor contested [[Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire]] in the Liberal interest, losing to the Conservative candidate by only 642 votes. He then unsuccessfully fought [[Edinburgh East (UK Parliament constituency)|Edinburgh East]] at a [[1947 Edinburgh East by-election|by-election in 1947]], and finally was beaten once more at [[Dundee West (UK Parliament constituency)|Dundee West]] in [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]]. From that point on he moved away from the Liberals (breaking with the party completely over the [[Suez Crisis]]) and into the orbit of reactionary, traditional Toryism.<ref name="TimesObit"/> He was a vigorous supporter of [[Margaret Thatcher]] during her time as Prime Minister, and was knighted on her recommendation in 1980.<ref name="TimesObit"/>
==Personal life== Junor married Pamela Welsh in 1942, and had two children.<ref name=independent-obituary /> Journalist [[Penny Junor]] is his daughter,<ref name="Worsthorne" /> and journalist [[Sam Leith]] his grandson. He was a lifelong supporter of [[Partick Thistle]].<ref>Junor, ''Listening for a Midnight Tram'', p. 5.</ref>
==Works== *''The Best of JJ'' (1981) *''Listening for a Midnight Tram: Memoirs'' (1990)
==References== *Penny Junor (2002): ''Home Truths: Life Around My Father'', {{ISBN|0-00-710213-5}} *Graham Lord (2012): ''Lord's Ladies and Gentlemen: 100 Legends of the 20th Century''
==Notes== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-media}} {{succession box| before=? | title=Deputy Editor of the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' | years=1953–1954 | after=[[Charles Wintour]] }} {{succession box|title=Editor of the ''[[Sunday Express]]''|years=1954–1986|before=Harold Keeble|after=[[Robin Esser]]}} {{s-end}}
{{Express newspapers}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Junor, John}} [[Category:1919 births]] [[Category:1997 deaths]] [[Category:Journalists from Glasgow]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]] [[Category:Daily Mail journalists]] [[Category:Scottish columnists]] [[Category:Scottish newspaper editors]] [[Category:20th-century Scottish autobiographers]] [[Category:Scottish knights]] [[Category:Artists' Rifles soldiers]] [[Category:Scottish Liberal Party parliamentary candidates]] [[Category:Fleet Air Arm personnel of World War II]] [[Category:People from Maryhill]] [[Category:20th-century British newspaper editors]]