Tribute to former Crawley Observer chief reporter

A journalist who helped shape the Crawley Observer has died, aged 85.

Jean Fitchew was chief reporter at the Observer in the late 1970s and early 80.

Jean joined the Observer from the East Grinstead Courier. She was Mother of the NUJ chapel, and took charge of training new recruits.

She lived in Copthorne during her time on the paper, and was married to Ray, with children Kim, Zoe and Stewart. She later retired to Chichester.

Former Observer reporter Phil Kerswell. who trained under Jean, at a time before mobile phones or computers, when he said the weekly paper had half a dozen reporters crammed into a smoke-filled newsroom, noisy with the clatter of typewriters, and when half the staff would be in the White Hart for a couple of pints every lunchtime.

He said Jean is remembered fondly as the “mother hen” who took care of a series of cub reporters.

“Jean was nurturing and encouraging to her young charges. Passing on the basics to a gaggle of reporters, as they grew up in a world where the tools of the job were a shorthand notebook, a local street map and some telephone directories.

“The language was all about hot-metal printing, mastheads, sidebars and bylines.

“It was a long time ago, and much has changed. But Jean would be glad to see the Observer still going strong.

“She was also someone with an understanding of the importance of press freedom, even at this very local level.

She knew what made a news story, and had a sense of fairness and decency in telling it, without any need for sensation.

“Rows with the local council press officer were not unusual in her quest to hold people to account.”

A private family funeral has been held and there will be a memorial celebration in the autumn.