Sir Raymond Stanley Tindle (8 October 1926 – 16 April 2022) was a British newspaper and radio entrepreneur. He founded the
Tindle Group of regional newspapers and radio stations.
Early life
After leaving school he went on to enlist in the
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, an infantry regiment in the British Army. He saw service in the Far East between 1944 and 1947, rising to the rank of captain. After wartime service he bought his first newspaper, the ''
Tooting & Balham Gazette'' with his £250
demob
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...
payment.
Career
Tindle continued acquiring newspapers over the decades that followed, operating them as local titles. At its peak, the Tindle Group owned more than 220 publications.
Tindle Newspapers Ltd
The Tindle Group is a British multimedia company operating regional newspapers and radio stations across the British Isles.
It publishes over 200 local newspapers in the UK, a number of which are over 100 years old.
The company is based in F ...
now owns local papers and radio stations covering large parts of Wales, Surrey, Hampshire, Essex, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Ireland, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man. Tindle attributed a great deal of the company's success to the fact it had always remained debt free. In the 1970s, Tindle was an early investor in
Capital Radio. In 1998, he sold back his shares in the company to buy
Island FM in Guernsey, the first local station to form part of the
Tindle Radio group.
He retired as chairman of the ''Surrey Advertiser'' in 1977 after 35 years and also as a director for 18 years on the main board of ''The Guardian & Manchester Evening News''. He was chairman for ten years of the ''Belfast News Letter'', the UK's oldest provincial daily. Tindle was elected president of the
Newspaper Society – the industry's highest honour – in 1971, and was its honorary treasurer for 14 years. He completed 50 years of involvement with the Newspaper Society in 2002. He was the founder chairman of the Weekly Newspaper Bureau and also a past president of the Wessex Newspaper Association, of the Greater London Newspaper Association and of the Young Newspaperman's Association. He was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, and a member of the Guild of Editors. Tindle became Master of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers in 1985 after some 20 years of service on several committees and of the Court.
In 2017, Tindle stepped down as chairman of the company at the age of 90. He was succeeded by his son Owen, but remained the group's president until his death on 16 April 2022 at the age of 95.
Awards
He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
1987 Birthday Honours
Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppl ...
and was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
for services to the newspaper industry.
Tindle was an Honorary Fellow of the
Surrey Institute of Art & Design which became the University for the Creative Arts, a Doctor of Letters at the
University of Buckingham and was admitted to the Degree of Doctor at the
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...
in 2008.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tindle, Ray
1926 births
2022 deaths
Devonshire Regiment officers
People educated at Torquay Boys' Grammar School
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English businesspeople
Knights Bachelor
British newspaper publishers (people)
British radio people
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
British Army personnel of World War II