Claud Cockburn

Francis Claud Cockburn of Brook Lodge, Youghal, County Cork, Munster, Ireland (/ˈkoʊbərn/ KOH-bərn; 12 April 1904 – 15 December 1981) was an Anglo-Scots journalist. His saying "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies, although he doesn't claim credit for originating it. He was the second cousin, once removed, of novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh.

Life and work

Cockburn was born in Beijing, China, on 12 April 1904, the son of Henry Cockburn, a British Consul General, and wife Elizabeth Gordon (née Stevenson). His paternal great-grandfather was Scottish judge/biographer Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn.

Cockburn was educated at Berkhamsted School, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, and Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. He became a journalist with The Times and worked as a foreign correspondent in Germany and the United States before resigning in 1933 to start his own newsletter, The Week. There is a story that, during his spell as a sub-editor on The Times, Cockburn and colleagues had a competition to devise the most accurate yet boring headline. Cockburn claimed the honours with "Small Earthquake in Chile, Not many dead". No copy of The Times featuring this headline has been located, although it did appear in Not the Times, a spoof version of the newspaper produced by several journalists at The Times in 1979 during the paper's year-long absence due to an industrial dispute.