FELLOW journalist Angela Cronin remembers: I arrived in the Morning Star Ardleigh Road offices in February 1994 not long after I graduated, keen to be a journalist but not knowing much about anything in that world.

Tony was my first chief subeditor and taught me everything there was to know about subediting. 

Considering the magnitude of the role that he had at the Morning Star back then, he was very patient, and within a very short space of time, he trusted me to work on many parts of the paper — news, features, sport, copytasting and even the website in its very early days. 

I learnt so much from Tony, which stood me in good stead for future roles. 

His love of Castleford Tigers and South Africa are over-riding memories from those times — and of course a pint or two in The Sussex after we had put the paper to bed. 

Tony, along with Bill Benfield and John Haylett, were a real force of nature and kept the paper going through tough times, while at the same time bringing through young journalists like myself.

David Nicholson recalls: I worked with Tony at Unison but was grateful for his support during the Star’s five-week journalists’ strike.

During the NUJ strike at the Morning Star to get editor John Haylett his job back Tony worked at Unison but was an active supporter of the strike. 

He helped set up the strike office where we brought out the Workers’ Morning Star and gave training sessions to the subeditors in using QuarkXpress to design and lay out the pages.

Lucie Hyndley also worked at the Star but was director of communications at Unison while Tony worked at the public services union.

She remembers: Tony started work for Unison in April 1997 as a temporary appointment. Some 23 years later, at the beginning of the first coronavirus lockdown, he retired. 

In the intervening years he had made himself quietly indispensable to the union and the communications team.

Tony’s character was formed from the two environments he experienced in his youth — Yorkshire and South Africa. 

From Yorkshire he took his love of Rugby League (and especially his beloved Castleford Tigers), a sartorial loyalty to flat caps and waistcoats and a no-nonsense, occasionally gruff demeanour that was usually accompanied by a wry smile.

His teenage years in South Africa had given him a very high-quality classical education, a love of African music and a politics forged in the fires of the liberation struggles.

At Unison, we benefitted from both. Tony brought a powerful work ethic, a pedantic eye for grammar, a journalistic professionalism and a willingness (sometimes hidden behind aforesaid gruffness) to embrace new ways of working. 

He was hugely liked and widely respected for his broad knowledge of the labour and trade union movement and his internationalism. 

His ninja skill as a trade union journalist was to be able to unpick and instinctively understand the often arcane inner political workings of the union and translate them into a clear message for our members. 

For more than 20 years, Tony told our members’ stories, decoded campaign messages and presented the human side of public services and the people who provide them.

For many years he was the NUJ father of chapel and was a tough and pragmatic advocate and negotiator on behalf of his members.  

He was a stalwart of the union’s social club, could occasionally be found setting the world to rights over a drink and his air of gravitas found a natural home on staff quiz nights. He wasn’t always right, but he always sounded like he was right…

Whether in South Africa, when working at the Morning Star or at Unison, Tony’s loyalty was always to those fighting for justice.

On behalf of Tony’s colleagues and friends at Unison and the members he wrote for, our thoughts are with his partner Amanda Kendal, his family and his beloved cats.

We will miss you Tony. Amandla Awethu!