Colin Jones, editor of The Banker (1979-1987), died on April 10, aged 75, after over 50 years in financial journalism which also included careers in broadcasting and politics.
Trained as an accountant, Colin joined The Economist in 1951 and then edited The Statist before joining the Financial Times in the mid-1960s. Always interested in the big picture and global issues he was awarded a Commonwealth Fund fellowship to Harvard in 1958 and for outstanding service to refugees he was awarded the highly prestigious Nansen Refugee Award in 1960. The UK prime minister, Harold McMillan, paid tribute: “We may feel justly proud of the handful of young men – Colin Jones, Chris Chataway, Trevor Philpott, Timothy Raison – who started this great movement, and by their imagination and persistence, imposed their ideas upon this country and the world.”
Colin’s global perspective was well suited to the Financial Times’ changing role in the 1960s and 1970s, prompting legendary FT commentator Sir Samuel Brittan to note: “He was able to bridge the gap between traditional industry reporting and the modern type of economic reporting.” He also became a regular writer of the FT’s ‘Lombard’ column after Gordon Tether was forced to give up what had become his personal column.
In 1979, Colin moved to become editor of The Banker at a time of major financial change. “Economic and financial sovereignty had begun to ebb through the fingers of nation states. Electronic fund transfer and data transmission, coupled with the wide-bodied jet, was giving rise to talk of the global marketplace. Monetary policy came back. The concept of big government began to retreat,” he noted of his time as editor at The Banker’s 75th anniversary in 2001.
Colin’s fine mind and analytical skills continued to serve The Banker well through the 1990s until 2003 where his broad experience added great depth to the magazine’s coverage of the massive changes taking place in central and eastern Europe.
Always a quintessential gentleman, his cerebral style enabled him to write, as former FT editor Geoffrey Owen noted, with authority and stature for more than half a century, a formidable achievement. He is survived by his wife, Jackie, two children, Spencer and Tamsin and five grandchildren.
