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Ian Hernon (born April 1 1953) is a British journalist, former long-time House of Commons Lobby correspondent and author of books covering British and American social and military history. He was born in Grimsby of Glasgow-Irish ancestry. His father Jimmy was a professional footballer who played for Leicester City – broken by war service in the Royal Artillery – Bolton Wanderers, Grimsby Town under Bill Shankly, Watford, Hastings and Canterbury. (1) His mother Barbara was a former dance teacher and wartime aerospace factory worker. Football took the family to Hastings and he was educated at St Mary Star-of-the-Sea primary school and Hastings Grammar. He left school aged 16 in 1969 to work on the weekly Hastings and St Leonards Observer where he covered everything from flower shows to murders and helped save the remaining mural by local signwriter Robert Tressell, author of socialist classic novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. (2) On his 19th birthday he took over the Rye office of the Sussex Express when he tracked down a runaway Hong Kong police chief. (3) In 1973 he moved to the Southern Evening Echo at Southampton where he focused on high-profile murder, terrorist and drug-smuggling trials. The following year he became a sub-editor, then sports editor, on the Tehran-based English-language edition of the national daily Kayhan newspaper, interrupted by a brief expulsion to Kuwait. In 1979 he moved to the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph in Kettering where he focused on politics and became local government editor, interrupted by a six-month NUJ strike and lock-out over the closed shop. His reportage helped to stymie the comeback as a Labour MP of publisher Robert Maxwell. In October 1978 Hernon joined the Parliamentary team of Central Press, the oldest Westminster news agency which reputedly sacked Charles Dickens. The following year he became editor, and in the subsequent 14 years hired 18 fellow Lobby correspondents. During that time, he personally covered Parliament and wider politics for the Glasgow Evening Times, HTV West and Anglia TV, and the Scottish editions of the Daily Express, Sunday Times and News of the World. (4) In 1994 he left the agency to set up as a one-man freelance outfit, keeping most Scottish contracts and adding Belfast’s Sunday Life and Newcastle’s Sunday Sun to his portfolio. Devolution saw the loss of most Scottish contracts and from 2000 he covered Westminster for the Liverpool Echo and served as back-up man for the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. The Trinity Mirror Group made him redundant in 2011 but he remained in the Lobby, initially as a freelancer and part-time researcher for several MPs and from 2013 as deputy editor of Tribune, the only print publication to have given George Orwell a job. He left after five years following the transatlantic takeover of the company and its switch to a glossy magazine format. (5) During his 40 years in the Lobby, Hernon covered the Northern Ireland Troubles, several wars and 11 general elections. Journalism and lecture work took him to Eire, the United States, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Finland, Armenia and most EU countries. Hernon officially retired in late 2019 just before the Covid pandemic hit to concentrate on more book-writing and freelance commentary and features. (6) Hernon married former commercial photographer Pauline (nee Thornton) in 1973. They live in Kent near their two daughters, sports reporter Jo (Joanna) and young offender social worker Kim, her partner Tony, and grandchildren Reuben, Freya and Theo. Awards: Avanta Journalist of the Year 2010, Bank of Scotland campaigning journalism 1998. Published books: Massacre and Retribution – Colonial Campaigns of the 19th Century (Sutton, 1998) The Savage Empire (Sutton, 2000) Blood in the Sand (Sutton, 2001) Britain’s Forgotten Wars – compilation of the above (Sutton, 2003) Riot! Civil Insurrection from Peterloo to the Present Day (Pluto Press, 2006) Assassin! 200 Years of Political Murder (Pluto Press, 2007) The Blair Decade 1997-2007 – Month by Month the Key Events and Soundbites that Defined New Labour (Politico’s, 2007) Fortress Britain – All the Incursions Since 1066 (The History Press, 2013) Robert Tressell – A Life in Hell – The Biography of the Author and his Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Red Axe, 2015) Crimes That Made the Modern World – From the Tolpuddle Martyrs to Bernie Madoff (Red Axe, 2016) The Wild East – Gunfights, Massacres and Race Riots Far From America’s Frontier (Amberley, 2019) Anti-Semitism and the Left (Amberley 2020) America’s Forgotten Wars – From Lord Dunmore to the Philippines (Amberley, 2021) Forthcoming books: America’s Forgotten Wars – Volume 2 - The 20th Century Bloody Sunday – A 50-year Fight for Justice 1776 And All That – 250 Years of Forgotten American History
SOURCES: 1. www.foxestalk.co.uk/history/players/?pid=727 2. From the Archive, 26 August1970, www.theguardian.com 3. www.police.gov.hk/info/history/petergodber 4. www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/ianhernon 5. www.tribunemagazine.com/archive/ianhernon 6. Amazon/books/ian hernon