David Astor
| David Astor | |
|---|---|
| Editor of The Observer | |
|
In office 1948–1975 |
|
| Preceded by | Ivor Brown |
| Succeeded by | Donald Trelford |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Francis David Langhorne Astor 5 March 1912 London, England |
| Died | 7 December 2001 (aged 89) London, England |
| Spouse(s) |
Melanie Hauser (m. 1945; div. 1951) Bridget Aphra Wreford (m. 1952–2001) |
| Children |
|
| Parents |
Waldorf Astor Nancy Witcher Langhorne |
| Residence | Sutton Courtenay Manor House |
| Education |
West Downs School Balliol College, Oxford |
Francis David Langhorne Astor CH (5 March 1912 – 7 December 2001) was an English newspaper publisher and member of the Astor family.
David Astor was born in London, England, the third child of American-born English parents, Waldorf Astor (1879–1952) and Nancy Witcher Langhorne (1879–1964). The product of an immensely wealthy business dynasty, and raised in the grandeur of a great country estate where the political and intellectual elite gathered, he nevertheless showed compassion for the poor and those who were victims of destructive socioeconomic policies.
An extremely shy man, David Astor was greatly influenced by his father but as a young man he rebelled against his strong-willed mother. After an education at West Downs School in Winchester in Hampshire, followed by Eton College in Berkshire, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he suffered a nervous breakdown and left in 1933 without graduating. He was psycho-analysed by Anna Freud and during World War II he served with distinction as a Royal Marines officer and was wounded in France. While at Balliol in 1931 he met a young anti-fascist German, named Adam von Trott zu Solz, who was to become the most influential figure in his life. Von Trott's involvement in the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler led to his execution.
In 1936, Astor joined the Yorkshire Post newspaper where he worked for a year before joining his father's newspaper, The Observer which he would edit for 27 years. With his father's advancing age, and high inheritance taxes in England, in 1945 David Astor and his brother transferred ownership of the paper to a board of trustees. The trust contained restrictions so that the paper could not be subject to a hostile takeover but also stipulated that its profits go towards improving the newspaper, promoting high journalistic standards, and required a portion of the profits to be donated to charitable causes.
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