It is with sadness that we report the death of John Chittock.

Born on 29 May 1928, John Dudley Chittock had a distinguished career as a columnist on the Financial Times from 1963 to 1987, writing about the developments that were coming, while at the same time reviewing documentary films that mirrored the social impact occurring. His late wife Joy was an energetic partner in everything, including their founding of the specialist  international business trade publication Screen Digest which he edited from 1971 to 1996. His career covered a wide range of activities, from documentary film production and journalism to inspiring national policy support on matters affecting film, cinema and television. In August he attended the opening of the ‘John and Joy Chittock Research Room’ at the University of East Anglia, which we reported on in the current issue of Viewfinder and also online, here.

John Chittock was also Fellow of the Royal Television Society, the Royal Photographic Society and the British Kinematograph Sound and Television Society, and in 1982 was made an OBE for services to the film and television industries. He was chairman of the British Federation of Film Societies, a founder and deputy chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council, founder and chairman of the Grierson Memorial Trust, and a founding trustee of the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. He gave his official list of recreations as being, ‘The human condition, period home and antiques, cooking, gardening, work, the arts’.

Joy Chittock died in 2001 and John is survived by his second wife Margaret.

Funeral Service and burial at St Mary’s Church Cavendish, Suffolk, CO10 8BP at 1pm, on Friday 21st October 2011. All welcome afterwards at The George, donations in lieu of flowers gladly received by St Nicholas Hospice, BSE, IP33 2QY.

We will publish a full tribute in a forthcoming issue of Viewfinder.

John Chittock (on the right) shaking hands with Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia Professor Edward Acton in August 2011.