Dennis Bardens

Dennis Bardens, probably our oldest member, died peacefully, in hospital, on 7 February.

He joined the NUJ in 1934, having given up "delivering hats for a milliner who lived on Guinness" at the age of 23. In the 1960s he was Chair of London Freelance Branch.

"I've done many things including editing Panorama - a fact that the BBC often forgets, and when they do I sue," he told an LFB meeting in October 2001. It's reported that he coined the programme's name, while looking out of a tower-block window in search of inspiration. "It does my heart a power of good to see you all pursuing your individual courses and joining hands in the common cause."

Tam Dalyell MP added to the tributes to Dennis at the February Branch meeting: "I remember his inquisitiveness - a marvellous quality in your profession - in the 1960s over the Anglo-French variable-geometry plane." Dennis will be missed by many people in a quite remarkable variety of walks of life.