Charles Wintour

Charles Vere Wintour, CBE, MBE (Mil) (18 May 1917 – 4 November 1999), was a British newspaper editor and was the father of editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, and the Political Editor of The Guardian newspaper, Patrick Wintour.

Life and career

Wintour was born in Pamphill Manor, near Wimborne, Dorset, the son of Alice Jane Blanche (Foster) and Major-General Fitzgerald Wintour. He wrote articles for the Radio Times while he was at Oundle School, and won a prize awarded by the Daily Mail. He completed his education at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, where he studied English and history and briefly edited Granta with Eric Hobsbawm.

After university, Wintour took a job in advertising, but left at the start of World War II to join the Royal Norfolk Regiment. During the war, he was awarded the military MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star.

In 1940 Wintour married Eleanor "Nonie" Trego Baker; the couple later divorced in 1979. In 1946, Wintour became a leader writer for the London Evening Standard. He was soon promoted to political editor, then moved to the Sunday Express as assistant editor. He returned to the Standard as deputy editor, during which period he convinced Lord Beaverbrook to launch the Evening Standard Awards for theatre.