Reporter rubbed shoulders with rich and famous

A FAMED former Evening Telegraph journalist who was in Amsterdam to cover John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s sleep-in protest and had a close brush with the Krays’ feared henchmen has died aged 81.

Arliss Rhind, who was also former news editor of The Courier and an assistant editor at the Daily Express and Daily Mail, has been remembered by former colleagues as a “huge character” who told “the most engaging stories”.

Born in Dundee in May 1940 Arliss was initially educated at Clepington Primary School.

He won a bursary to Morgan Academy where he excelled at sports, particularly rugby.

When he was 17, Arliss began his journalistic career as a trainee reporter on The Courier and Evening Telegraph based at DC Thomson’s Meadowside headquarters.

After eight years, he joined the Daily Express and was based for a short spell in its Dundee office before transferring to the newspaper’s Scottish headquarters in Glasgow, then Fleet Street.

From his London base he travelled to Amsterdam to cover Beatles legend Lennon and wife Yoko’s sleep-in protest and interviewed the couple.

Daring, coupled with a dose of luck, often gives reporters the edge and Arliss possessed both. He once took a chance on getting a scoop from gangland kingpins the Kray twins by turning up in their local and ordering a drink.

The tall lad with a Scottish accent and a sharp suit stood out in London’s East End and it was not long before friends of the Krays clocked him as a reporter and “invited” him to leave.

Arliss always proved an adaptable, willing and wellprepared reporter.

In later years he would speak of the two things he would never leave the house without: a good breakfast and his passport.

The day came when his passport was needed and he was dispatched at short notice to join the ranks of the paper’s foreign correspondents, reporting from North America, Africa and east Asia.

In 1973 he was made a junior executive of the Daily Express and within two years had been made news editor, a position he held for five years. He moved up to become assistant editor at the Express before joining former colleague Sir David English at the Daily Mail as an associate and then assistant editor.

By the mid-1980s technological changes were sweeping through Fleet Street and titles were moving out, so Arliss and his wife Dorothy, whom he had married in 1962, returned to Scotland.

They built a house at Letham Grange, near Arbroath, and opened sports shops in Arbroath and Carnoustie.

However, the lure of journalism proved strong and Arliss returned to newspapers, first as a reporter with The Courier before being appointed news editor in 1997.

Arliss is survived by his children Lesley, Gillian and Damon, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Main image: Arliss during his chairmanship of Carnoustie Community Council. Left: Ronnie and Reggie Kray, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Mr Rhind during his days at the Daily Express.