Robert Barrington - Ward Robert McGowan Barrington - Ward DSO MC ( 23 February 1891 – 29 February 1948 ) was an English barrister and journalist who was editor of " The Times " from 1941 until 1948 . Family and early life . Robert was the fourth son of Mark James Barrington - Ward , the rector of Duloe , Cornwall and an inspector of schools . He attended Westminster School , where he was a King ' s Scholar , and Balliol College , Oxford . While at Balliol , he was elected president of the Oxford Union Society and took a Third Class in Greats in 1913 . Though planning for a career in the law and in politics , he undertook freelance editing work for " The Times " while reading for the Bar , and in February 1914 was given a position as secretary to the editor , Geoffrey Dawson . At the start of World War I Barrington - Ward became an officer with the Duke of Cornwall ' s Light Infantry ( DCLI ) . He went on to serve in France and Belgium , where he was mentioned in despatches three times and awarded both the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross . It the 1920s Barrington - Ward met and married Adele Radice , the daughter of an Indian civil servant who was working as a schoolteacher . The couple had two sons , Mark and Simon , and a daughter , Caroline . Mark followed his father by serving in the DCLI , studying at Balliol and editing a newspaper . Newspaper career . Postwar demobilization left Barrington - Ward a man without a position . While he was called to the Bar at Lincoln ' s Inn a few weeks after the end of the war , early in 1919 he received an invitation to become an assistant editor of a Sunday newspaper " The Observer " . Though his initial interview with the paper ' s editor , J . L . Garvin , did not go well , a successful stint as a special correspondent to the Paris Peace Conference soon won Garvin over . The position provided Barrington - Ward with valuable experience in the management and operations of a newspaper , and he developed a close friendship with the legendary editor . In April 1927 Dawson invited Barrington - Ward to return to " The Times " as assistant editor . Barrington - Ward accepted , taking over most of the day - to - day administration of the office . His responsibilities soon grew : in 1929 , he began writing most of the leading articles on domestic policy and European matters , and in 1934 he was made deputy editor . Convinced by his own military service of the futility of the First World War , he supported Dawson ' s views in favour of appeasing Germany in the 1930s , though he switched to opposing further German expansion after the Germans invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 . Two months later Barrington - Ward was approached by the owner of " The Times " , John Jacob Astor , about succeeding Dawson as editor upon Dawson ' s retirement , which was anticipated by the end of the year . Though Barrington - Ward accepted , Dawson ' s departure was conditional on the continuance of peace , and the outbreak of war led him to postpone his retirement indefinitely . It was not until Astor pressed Dawson for a departure date in May 1941 that the editor finally agreed to leave the paper at the end of September 1941 . As editor , Barrington - Ward was more interested in policy matters than in the business of running a newspaper . Though a Tory democrat in his youth , he became a Labour supporter after the First World War , and adopted an editorial stance more left - wing than that of his predecessors . In terms of the war , Barrington - Ward believed that it was generally the patriotic duty of the paper to support the government , he reserved the right to oppose specific policies , such as the deployment of British troops to Greece in 1944 . He enjoyed regular contact with many of the leading figures in the war effort , including the prime minister , Winston Churchill . Death . In early 1947 , Barrington - Ward ' s colleagues noticed a decline in his work . Though he was given a long break , upon his return he shocked friends and colleagues with his worsening condition . That November , Astor advised him to take three months off . In January 1948 he travelled to South Africa ; on the return voyage he fell ill with malaria which his weakened body was unable to fight . Barrington - Ward died on board the ship , which was docked in the harbour of Dar es Salaam in Zanzibar . He was buried onshore .