Richard (Nobby) Clarke

I knew Nobby from church in Brockley. He was a great man. It's sad that he is no longer with us. RIP.

Nobby was the heart and soul of a truly great night foreign desk when I was foreign editor 1986-92. It was a team expert at picking up mistakes, correcting grammar and, generally, at turning story dross into spun gold. Nobby not only knew all the tricks of the sub editor’s trade but he also possessed a great sum of accumulated knowledge of the world. above all, he was a great colleague and a genuinely nice man.

I’d like to add to the lovely tributes. Nobby stood out as a special character, invariably displaying a wry humour, and posing just the right questions to reporters such as me who couldn’t quite find the right way to describe accurately certain situations. He seemed to me to fit in so well to the culture of the foreign desk at the time where people ( in my experience) combined being great at their jobs with staying calm and polite (and also sometimes being very kind ). Nobby you left a wonderful mark on the people who encountered you.

I am very sorry to hear of Nobby’s death. I did not work closely with him, as others did. But I remember him as the sort of human being who has made me immensely proud to be part of the FT for 35 years. May I give his family and close friends my condolences on their loss.

Working alongside Nobby for much of the 1990s was a hugely congenial experience. He wore his knowledge lightly but there were deep wells of it. And whatever happened in the course of the day's news flow, I never had to worry that the page we jointly put together would look at all lacking once it landed in pink and black. Behind that unflappability resided a gentle soul, for whom the irksome side of technological progress was approached with dry humour. No sooner had he mastered the first clunky iterations of electronic publishing when a fresh intrusion came in the form of the chirruping mobile phones that brash younger colleagues began to acquire. The handsets of the time being hefty beasts with few actual functions, they were not always carried around the office. Hence one enduring memory: if I'd wandered across the room Nobby would kindly come padding over to announce with an air of bemused disdain: "Your jacket's ringing." I wish him peace.

So sad to hear Nobby has gone. He was a lovely man - a true gent and a professional, always courteous, reliable and ready to help when others around him were overwhelmed. And what a great photo...

Without ever pushing himself forward, Nobby was a monumental presence on the Foreign Desk nightside, always read to help, always lightening the atmosphere. Down at the Clyde during the break he was quick to buy a round, quick to enjoy it. Walking holidays with him in Italy and France were a delight. Whatever he did, he was the same dear old Nobby: you just knew what you were getting, and you relished it.

Condolences to the girls and grandchildren on the loss of such a lovely man. I first met him when, as Heather Wyatt, I arrived in Tehran to work on an English language newspaper in 1968. Nobby was the senior news editor and I was a feature writer. This was after Exeter University and before the FT, if I remember correctly. Like many Tehran drivers, he owned a fairly beat-up Mercedes -Benz which he would generously fill up with passengers to tour the country on weekends ( Friday and Saturday in Iran). Our favourite was to scale the Elbourz Mountains to reach the Caspian Sea, where in pre-revolutionary times we could swim unhindered in bikinis. An equal favourite was to drive south to spectacular Isfahan. We enjoyed dinner out at an array of Tehran restaurants once we had put the paper to bed - Nobby sometimes staying in the office to tend to a late-breaking story. We wrestled with censorship, despite our best efforts to speak the truth without unduly upsetting those in charge. Nobby had such a deep interest in and knowledge of foreign news- both the Tehran Journal and the FT nourished that - even tho the TJ was tiny in comparison. In emails, he had such a positive. approach to his illness. Although I saw him only infrequently, I shall certainly miss him.