My great-uncle Walter Scott worked for the Guardian as a foreign affairs subeditor from 1916 to his retirement in 1963 aged 88 (The changing art of the subeditor: ‘You had to read the type upside down’, 2 August). He was due to retire in 1939, just as war broke out, and younger men in the office enlisted. On 9 July 1940, Walter received a memo saying that in the event of an invasion of Britain, he would be notified by a secret code. He frequently invited Walter for weekends at his country cottage, Abbots Holt, in Tilford, Surrey. It’s the penalty that Manchester had to pay the world!”Walter’s services were needed as he was the go-to person for knowledge of foreign affairs.

Source: The Guardian August 05, 2021 16:51 UTC