Wintour was born in Pamphill Manor, near Wimborne, Dorset to Alice Jane Blanche Foster and Major-General Fitzgerald Wintour.^[2] He was the brother of Cordelia Mary Wintour. He wrote articles for the Radio Times when he was at Oundle School and won a prize awarded by the Daily Mail. He then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge to study English and history. At Cambridge, he briefly edited the Granta magazine with Eric Hobsbawm.^[3]

After Cambridge, Wintour took an advertising job in London but left at the start of World War II to join the Royal Norfolk Regiment. During the war, he was awarded the military MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star.^[3]

In 1946, Wintour became a leader writer for the London Evening Standard. He was soon promoted to political editor, then moved to the Sunday Express as assistant editor. He returned to the Standard as deputy editor, during which he convinced Lord Beaverbrook to launch the Evening Standard Awards for theatre in 1955.^[3] Wintour became managing editor of the Daily Express in 1958, then in 1959 moved back to the Standard as editor.^[4]

Although circulation fell under Wintour's editorship, he was well-regarded and was considered for the post of editor of The Times in 1967.^[3] He was particularly passionate about the paper's politics and high-society gossip column, the Londoner's Diary, once saying: "To go to a decent London dinner party without having read the Diary would be to go out unprepared for proper conversation."

Wintour remained the editor until 1976, when he became managing director of the Daily Express and supervised its transition from a broadsheet to a tabloid.^[5] He negotiated to merge the London Evening Standard with the Evening News and championed for keeping the staff and approach of the Standard. As a result, the merger was called off. The Express Group was sold to Trafalgar House, and new owner Victor Matthews appointed Wintour editor of the Standard again in 1978. In 1979, Wintour joined the Press Council and served for two years. In 1980, the Standard and the News were finally merged. While the name of the Standard was kept, Wintour and his senior executives were replaced by former News editor Louis Kirby and his executives.^[3]

In 1981, Wintour launched the Sunday Express Magazine with his new wife Audrey Slaughter.^[6] In 1984, they launched Working Woman magazine. A year later, Wintour became editor of the Press Gazette and advised on the launch of Today, The Independent, the new Daily News,^[3] and the breakfast television show TV-am.^[5]

He wrote two books based on his experience: Pressures on the Press in 1972,^[7] an account of decision-making during every hour of the day in a newsroom; and The Rise and Fall of Fleet Street in 1989,^[8] an analysis of London's Fleet Street as a publishing centre and the people responsible for its historic rise and the more recent responses to new technology.

Wintour retired in 1989 and spent his later years supporting the Liberal Democrats and chairing the regional National Art Collections Fund.^[4]

Wintour died in London, U.K. on November 4, 1999. He was 82.

Influence edit

Organisers of major drama awards have acknowledged Wintour's impact on London theatre. When he retired in 1982, the Society of London Theatre gave him the Society of London Theatre Special Award, which usually went to actors, directors and such. After his death, his Evening Standard Theatre Awards added his name into one category to create The Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright. At his memorial wake in 1999 that was supervised by his daughter Anna, the playwright Harold Pinter read from his work and expressed gratitude for his play The Caretaker winning the Best Play award in 1960,^[9] which lifted off his career.

In 1940 Wintour married Eleanor "Nonie" Trego Baker. They divorced in 1979. A year later, he married Audrey Slaughter with whom he was involved in magazine publishing.

He had five children, including the prominent journalists Anna and Patrick.^[5]