Tribute paid to Abergavenny journalist who taught Jill Dando

A man of great wit and charm, Don Chambers, from Abergavenny, became a journalism lecturer and tutor and acted as a mentor to hundreds of budding reporters.

Some of his proteges went on to stellar careers in their field.

Jill Dando, John Inverdale, Anne Diamond and Adrian Chiles are just some of the famous names who owe a debt to ‘The Don’.

Former Coleg Gwent Pontypool journalism students Katherine Skellon, left, and Laura Dulin with Don at the Abergavenny Food Festival in 2013. Picture: Katherine Skellon

He was a successful reporter and later newspaper editor before he decided to pass on his immense knowledge and tricks of the trade to aspiring journalists.

He became a popular teacher at Coleg Gwent’s Pontypool campus for many years where he put scores of students through their paces.

In later years he wrote a nostalgia column for the Argus.

Don at work. Picture: Hannah Edwards

One of his pupils at Coleg Gwent, Katherine Skellon, told of the important part Don played in her life.

“I wouldn't be where I am today without his guidance, kindness and vast knowledge of the newspaper industry and law,” she said.

“He became a dear friend in the years that followed after I completed my training at Coleg Gwent's Pontypool campus.

“Don would pop into the Abergavenny Free Press and South Wales Argus office each week to write his popular nostalgia column and keep Lesley Flynn, Hannah Edwards and myself on our toes, testing us on newspaper law, as well as recalling many funny stories from his early career and time as an editor of the Abergavenny Chronicle and Abergavenny Gazette.

“Don had a pet hate of misplaced apostrophes.”

She added: “He was a true gentleman, who cared deeply about journalism and his students.

“He was one of the last of the old-school journalists, the likes of whom we won't see again.

“My thoughts are with his wife Julie and family. Farewell Don.”

Former student Hannah Edwards also paid tribute: “He was like my adopted father, my role model.

“He was the wittiest, sharpest man and a true gentleman.

“I will always remember that handsome, kind, smiley face with those big eyes and a rolled up Western Mail under his arm.

“The world is a little bit more boring and a little sadder without him.”

Andy Sherwill, former editor of The Forester in Gloucestershire said: “Don was a font of all knowledge.

"As a tutor, he was always able to emphasise the point he was making about journalism by likening it to an experience he had in the newsroom, or out and about within the community.

“These experiences would then develop into other stories, which would always lighten up the mood of the classroom.

"His personal touch was because he was able to draw on his time of being a reporter and an editor of a weekly newspaper and being in the army as part of his National Service.

"Don was a man of wit and charm and was the master of words, knowing immediately when to stop writing having made his point.

“He also had zero tolerance to bad punctuation and was extremely enthusiastic about having apostrophes put in the correct place.

“He even went around Abergavenny, his home town, and where he had been editor of two newspapers, and pointed out to all the shopkeepers falling foul of the apostrophe rule where they had gone wrong in the signage or notifications in their windows.”

Don passed away on New Year’s Eve.

He was born in 1936 in Cwmgwrach, a village in the Neath valley, before moving to Cowbridge and then settling with his parents in Monmouthshire.

Don went to primary school in Llanfair Kilgeddin before passing his 11-plus and attending King Henry VIII Grammar School in Abergavenny.