Peregrine Worsthorne
| Sir Peregrine Worsthorne | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 December 1923 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
Stowe School Peterhouse, Cambridge Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Journalist, writer, broadcaster |
| Title | Sir |
Sir Peregrine Gerard Worsthorne (born 22 December 1923) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. He was educated at Stowe School, Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Worsthorne spent the largest part of his career at the Telegraph newspaper titles, eventually becoming editor of The Sunday Telegraph for several years. He finally left the newspaper in 1997.
Worsthorne was born the younger son of General Alexander Lexy Koch de Gooreynd, a Belgian banker who had served his country in World War I, and Priscilla Reyntiens, an English Roman Catholic and the granddaughter of the 12th Earl of Abingdon. The family name was anglicised following the birth of Worsthorne's older brother Simon Towneley, who from 1976 to 1996 was the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire. The two boys were baptized Roman Catholic, but did not attend Catholic denominational school.
Worsthorne's mother divorced his father when he was five years old and she would soon marry Sir Montagu Norman, then the Governor of the Bank of England. As a consequence of the split, the family butler effectively raised the two brothers for several years. "Unhappy as some of my formative experiences were, all in all, it was pretty good soil for someone wanting to go into public life", he would later recall, commenting on the tradition of public duty and service so prevalent in his family and his family's social circle. Worsthorne's biological father reverted his name to Koch de Gooreynd in 1937 and lived in Rhodesia for several years; Worsthorne discovered in the early 1960s that a half-brother was born during this period.
He wrote that while at Stowe he was once seduced on the art room chaise-longue by George Melly, a fellow pupil who was later a jazz singer and writer, an accusation that Melly always denied. One other pupil, Colin Welch, did though become a lifelong friend. Welch also had a career in journalism, and persuaded Worsthorne to apply to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He began his studies at the college in 1942, having won an exhibition to read History. The master of Peterhouse at that time was the Conservative academic Herbert Butterfield. As was normal practice Worsthorne was called up for war service after three terms; he was rusticated during the last term. However, in army training with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry he injured his shoulder and after being admitted to a hospital in Oxford was able to persuade Magdalen College to admit him for a term.
...
Wikipedia