‘Lone wolf of Fleet Street’ Chapman Pincher dies aged 100

The former Daily Express journalist, who revealed secret after secret during his years as defence correspondent at the newspaper, died of “old age”, his son Michael Chapman Pincher revealed in a post on his Facebook page.

Mr Pincher wrote: “Our dad, Chapman Pincher (The Lone Wolf of Fleet Street) facing his death with: no regrets, no fear and no expectation, died of old age on August 5 2014 aged hundred and a quarter.

“‘Harry, a journalist, author, fisherman, shot and scourge of politicians of all hues leaves Pat and Mick, a raft of grandchildren, his third wife Billiee and her three children. His last joke was ‘Tell them I’m out of scoops’. For him RIP stands for Recycling-in-Progress.”

Pincher, who turned 100 in March, was dubbed “the lone wolf of Fleet Street” for getting a series of exclusive stories revealing military secrets and in 2005 was named by the Press Gazette as one of the 40 most influential British journalists of the previous 40 years.

His 1981 book Their Trade is Treachery publicised suspicions that former MI5 Director General Roger Hollis had been a spy for the Soviet Union, describing the security services’ inquiries into the matter.

He wrote several books on espionage, including Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders and Cover-Ups: Six Decades of Espionage, and 
his latest, Chapman Pincher: Dangerous To Know, published this year.

In an interview to mark his 100th birthday, the journalist told the BBC how he would take people for lunch at London restaurant L’Ecu de France, later learning that MI5 had bugged his meetings.

He said: “MI5 heard every conversation that I had and they did nothing about it, all they did was put it in the files. MI5 doesn’t like to take any action, they like to know. ‘It’s in the files. If we take any action they’ll know we know’. That’s the attitude, it’s absolutely crazy, at least I think so.”