Alexander Chancellor

British journalist (1940–2017)

Christopher Chancellor (father)
Sylvia Mary Paget (mother)

Alexander Surtees Chancellor, CBE (4 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was a British journalist.

Biography

Born in Dane End, Hertfordshire, the youngest of his parents' four children.^[1] Alexander Chancellor was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

He was the editor of the conservative Spectator magazine from 1975 to 1984. In 1986, after a spell as deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he became the first Washington correspondent of the newly-launched quality broadsheet, The Independent, and subsequently launched and edited the paper's first Saturday magazine. In 1993, he spent a year in the United States working as an editor at The New Yorker magazine, where he oversaw the "Talk of the Town" section.^[2] This experience was the basis of a memoir, Some Times in America, which both satirised the ordeal and recorded his deep affection for New York and the United States. It was published in both the UK and the U.S. in 2000.^[3]

In June 2014, he became editor of The Oldie magazine in succession to Richard Ingrams.^[4] Until January 2012, he contributed a weekly column in The Guardian,^[5] published in the "Weekend" supplement each Saturday. In March 2012, he began to contribute to The Spectator again, with a column entitled "Long Life".^[6]

Chancellor lived in Northamptonshire. He was the father of British model Cecilia Chancellor, and Eliza, who married the writer Alexander Waugh.^[7] Chancellor was the grandson of Sir John Chancellor, the first Governor of Southern Rhodesia,^[8] and was the uncle of British actress Anna Chancellor. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to journalism.^[9]

Chancellor died at his home in Northamptonshire on 28 January 2017, aged 77.^[5]^[10] His final column for the The Spectator was published on the day he died.^[11]

References

^ Jack, Ian (31 January 2017). "Alexander Chancellor obituary". The Guardian.
^ Porter, William (6 February 2000). "Best New Yorker profiles gathered in Life Stories". The Denver Post. Colorado. p. G-04.
^ Chancellor, Alexander (2000). Some Times in America - And a Life in a Year at the New Yorker. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-0710-2.
^ Mount, Harry (12 June 2014). "Richard Ingrams on his successor at The Oldie: 'He's a bloody fool for taking the job'". Daily Telegraph.
^ ^a ^b Doward, Jamie (28 January 2017). "Alexander Chancellor, former Spectator and Guardian journalist, dies aged 77". The Guardian.
^ Greenslade, Roy (7 March 2012). "Chancellor returns to The Spectator". The Guardian. London.
^ Manley, Jeffrey (3 February 2017). "Alexander Chancellor (1940–2017): Savior of The Spectator". The Evelyn Waugh Society. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
^ Chancellor, Alexander (27 June 2008). "Despite Mugabe's hatred of British colonialism, the road he lives in is still named after my grandfather". The Guardian.
^ "No. 60173". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2012. p. 7.
^ Mount, Harry (28 January 2017). "RIP, Alexander Chancellor, The Man Who Invented the Modern Spectator". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
^ Schudel, Matt (2 February 2017). "Alexander Chancellor, editor who transformed Spectator magazine, dies at 77". The Washington Post.

External links

Journalisted - Articles by Alexander Chancellor
Articles by Chancellor in The Spectator
"Tributes to Alexander Chancellor", The Oldie.

Media offices
Preceded by Harold Creighton	Editor of The Spectator 1975–1984	Succeeded by Charles Moore
Preceded by ?	Deputy Editor of the Sunday Telegraph 1986	Succeeded by Ian Watson