Tributes to multi-talented journalist and editor
TRIBUTES have been paid to a renowned Midland journalist, who covered the Birmingham pub bombings and Fred and Rose West murder case, after his death at the age of 77.
Sparkhill-born Alan Wallcroft left school at 16 to become a copy boy in the Birmingham Evening Mail newsroom, eventually working his way up to various senior roles across Midland newspapers, TV and radio, including editor of the Bromsgrove Advertiser and sports editor of the Malvern Gazette.
The retired journalist and life-long Birmingham City FC fan died at his home in Powick, near Worcester, on January 5 following a long illness with his wife Val by his side. The couple met when she won a beauty contest and he was one of the judges.
The funeral for the father-of-one and grandfather took place at Worcester Crematorium on Tuesday.
Mr Wallcroft was working at ATV Today, the Birmingham-based TV current affairs programme when, during the evening of November 21, 1974, bombs exploded at two pubs in the city centre. He found himself reporting from amid the wreckage of the Birmingham pub bombings, which killed 21 people and injured another 182.
Twenty years later, working for BBC Radio Gloucester, he covered the horrors of Fred and Rosemary West case.
Over the next two years, he was BBC Radio and Television’s special co-ordinator and reporter on the investigations at Cromwell Street.
He said of that time: “During the trial there was so much distressing and harrowing evidence, but you just had to put it to the back of your mind. At times, it was horrific and journalists covering the case were
offered counselling.”
During his career, he also worked for titles including the Oldbury News, Warley News, Raymonds News Agency in Stoke on Trent, the Stoke Sentinel, Worcester Evening News, BBC Radio Stoke, Peterboroughbased
Radio Hereward and BBC Radio Gloucester.
As a huge sports enthusiast, Mr Wallcroft enjoyed being a football referee, angler and a golfer, twice being elected captain of the Senior Section at Bransford Golf Club, near Worcester, which on the day of his death flew its flag at half-mast.
Fellow journalist and friend John Phillpott said: “Alan was a consummate journalist who could turn his hand to anything. Sub-editor, editor, sports writer, theatre critic... these are just a snapshot of the skills that he displayed over a lifetime of achievement.
“But perhaps most of all, I will miss our meetings at the theatre and over the dinner table, many of which were enlivened by what seemed to be his endless repertoire of pun-laden, excruciatingly corny jokes. Rest in peace, Alan.”