Alexander Surtees Chancellor, CBE (4 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was a British journalist and editor. He was the editor of The Spectator from 1975 to 1984.

Background

Alexander Chancellor was born in 1940 in Dane End, Hertfordshire, of four children born to journalist Christopher Chancellor and his wife, Sylvia (née Paget) Chancellor. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Career

Chancellor began his career as a journalist with Reuters, where his father had worked.

This experience was the basis of a memoir, Some Times in America, which both satirised the ordeal and recorded his deep affection for New York and the United States. It was published in 2000. In 1995, Chancellor returned to The Sunday Telegraph to help launch a magazine supplement.

In June 2014, Chancellor became editor of The Oldie magazine in succession to Richard Ingrams.

Personal life

Chancellor lived in Northamptonshire. In 1964, he married Susanna Debenham, and they had two daughters: model Cecilia Chancellor, and Eliza Chancellor, who married the writer Alexander Waugh, the son of Auberon Waugh. Chancellor was the grandson of Sir John Chancellor, the first Governor of Southern Rhodesia, and was the uncle of British actress Anna Chancellor. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to journalism.

Chancellor died at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on 28 January 2017, aged 77. His final column for The Spectator was published on the day he died.

References

  • Journalisted - Articles by Alexander Chancellor
  • Articles by Chancellor in The Spectator
  • "Tributes to Alexander Chancellor", The Oldie.