Newspaper Sorry For Bad Manners At Party

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 11

Newspaper Sorry For Bad Manners At Party

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. Jan. 17. The Press Council today severely criticised a London newspaper whose girl reporter tried to gate-crash the Duke of Kent’s twenty-first birthday party. The council, a voluntary organisation of editors and publishers, heard a complaint against the newspaper, the “Daily Sketch,” from the Queen’s press secretary. Commander R. Colville.

He said that both the Queen and the Duchess of Kent had been disturbed by efforts of reporters to cover the party, held at Coppins, the country home of the Duchess of Kent, on October 9.

“Her Majesty considers that it is not too much to ask that she and other members of the Roval Family should receive the same privacy in their homes as is enjoyed by others.” Commander Colville said in a letter to the council.

He said that the girl reporter turned up at the party, said she had lost her invitation, but was a personal friend of the young Duke.

The Duke was consulted, and a member of the household staff was Instructed to see her off the

The next day, the newspaper printed her story, including an account of her arrival at Coppins concealed in the luggage boot of

The editor of the “Daily Sketch.” Mr Herbert Gunn, told the council in a letter that he had not appreciated at the time the “extent to which the party was a private one.” He asked that his apologies be extended to the Queen and the Duchess of Kent.

The council said that it considered Mr Gunn guilty of a flagrant violation of good manners and that his conduct called for severe condemnation.

The “Daily Sketch” in an article today said that last November the editor had written to the Press Council apologising and asked it to convey his apologies to the Queen and the Duchess of Kent.

“We willingly repeat the apology we made two months ago,” the newspaper said, but if the council had not yet sent its original apology to the Palace it should apologise too for its slowness.