John Douglas Pringle, journalist and newspaper editor, was considered the finest leader writer of his generation. His father was a hosiery manufacturer. After some years at a Scottish preparatory school he went to Shrewsbury where he read classics and left school in 1931. He gained a First in Classical Greats at Oxford University and was on the editorial staff of the Manchester
Guardian 1934-1939. Just before the war he joined the BBC as a producer of its talks department then served as a commissioned officer in France during World War II and later as a junior staff officer in the Combined Operations Headquarters in London. He then returned to the Manchester Guardian as assistant editor 1944-1948 and was special writer for the London Times 1948-1952.
Pringle came to Australia in 1952 after being approached by Rupert Henderson, managing director of the Sydney Morning Herald, who indicated he was looking for an editor of the newspaper to succeed Hugh McClure Smith. Pringle had been hospitalised with tuberculosis two years earlier and was attracted by the quality of the Sydney Morning Herald, the desire to escape a drab and austere Britain and the opportunity to improve his material circumstances. He also had an aunt and several cousins on a grazing property in New South Wales. Pringle was editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, 1952-1957. He returned to England as deputy editor of the Observer 1958-1962, then came back to Australia in October 1963. He produced a weekly current affairs program on Channel 7 and then became managing editor of the Canberra Times, 1964-1965. In 1963 Pringle wrote Australian Painting Today. In 1965 he was appointed editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and stayed until his retirement in 1970. There had been clashes with Sir Warwick Fairfax over editorial policy which led to his sudden departure before his anticipated date of retirement. He continued to write book reviews, essays and memoirs and spent time in academia. The publications included The Best of Ethel Anderson (1973), The Last Shenachie (1976) and The Shorebirds of Australia (1987).
(Source: John Douglas Pringle Have Pen : Will Travel (1973); William H. Wilde et.al. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994))
