VETERAN journalist Walter James, who witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany and helped launched the careers of many eminent newspeople, has died at the age of 103.

Mr James, who ended his days in Merlin Court care home in Marlborough, leaves five children and six grandchildren.

Educated at Uckfield Grammar School in Sussex and Keble College, Oxford, where he gained a First Class Honours degree in modern history, Mr James began his career in journalism at the Manchester Guardian newspaper, now simply The Guardian, in 1937.

He was sent to Berlin before the outbreak of World War Two to report for the paper and saw at first hand how the country was being run under Adolf Hitler.

He went on to work as editor of the Times Educational Supplement, during which time he nurtured the careers of a number of journalists who went on to make a name for themselves, including theatre critic Irving Wardle and eminent broadcaster and columnist Sir Simon Jenkins.

Sir Simon attended Mr James’s 90th birthday and delighted those attending with some anecdotes of Mr James’s reign at the TES.

Mr James moved to New Zealand for three years and also stood as a Liberal candidate for the Bury division of Lancashire at the 1945 General Election.

Up until last year, Mr James had been living on his own in Windsor but moved to Merlin Court to be closer to his family.

His son-in-law, James Dickie, said: “He loved being taken for drives in the Wiltshire countryside, with a stop in a local pub on the way. He was very appreciative of that.”