View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
December 16, 2004updated 22 Nov 2022 1:54pm

Malcolm Armstrong: former editor, the Sunday Sun

By Press Gazette

Malcolm Armstrong, who died on 17 November at the age of 87, enjoyed a long and eventful career. One of his proudest moments, as editor of the Sunday Sun , was the first front page to confirm that man had landed on the moon.

It was a career interrupted when the Blackpool teenager left his first reporting job on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to volunteer at the outbreak of World War Two, signing on as a motorcycle dispatch rider.

The next six years took him to fighting zones in North Africa, Palestine, India, Burma and the North West Frontier. His medals included the Burma Star.

It was while collecting wounded troops as a desert ambulance driver that he collected many of his amazing stories.

He married his wife Eve in 1946.

Some time later, tuberculosis, believed to have been contracted during his years in the desert, was found in both lungs. This led to six years of hospital, major chest surgery, and a lifetime struggle with ill health.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

He resumed his career on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, becoming features editor, and then moved to Reading as assistant editor for the start of web offset colour printing.

His natural flair for design and colour led to job offers from United Newspapers in Wigan, and finally as colour consultant to Thomson Newspapers in Newcastle, where he edited the Sunday Sun in the late 1960s.

Always an innovative and enthusiastic newsman, he had an instinct for the quirky and offbeat.

He also had a big heart, so when presented with the story of a Gateshead mother’s struggle to raise funds for equipment to help young heart defect patients at Freeman Hospital, he threw in the paper’s support. Three times the target amount was raised, and Malcolm and Eve were among a group invited to Buckingham Palace to present the cheque to Prince Phillip.

Retiring 25 years ago, Malcolm then poured his enthusiasm into the Armstrong Trust, celebrating the clan’s history, running a magazine, and visiting fellow Armstrongs around the world with Eve. His love of words went into poetry and writing up his memories.

For the past 11 years he battled with various health problems, nursed devotedly by his wife of 58 years.

Malcolm was cremated in Edinburgh. He leaves Eve, son John (a journalist with BBC Bristol), daughter Janet and five grandchildren.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network