Former Newspaper Editor Lord Rees-Mogg Dies

Lord Rees-Mogg, the former editor of The Times, has died at the age of 84.

As William Rees-Mogg, he led the newspaper from January 1967 to March 1981.

He had only recently discovered that he had inoperable oesophageal cancer, his son, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, told The Times.

"It has been a mercifully short illness. He died very peacefully and a member of his family was with him. He was very prepared for it," he said.

Throughout his journalistic career Lord Rees-Mogg wielded considerable influence in Tory circles, particularly during the Thatcher and Major governments.

Paying tribute, Prime Minister David Cameron said Lord Rees-Mogg was "a Fleet Street legend - editing The Times through a tumultuous period with flair and integrity".

"I always found him full of wisdom and good advice - particularly when I first became leader of the opposition.

"My thoughts are with his wife and five children at this sad time."

Lord Rees-Mogg once famously but unsuccessfully challenged the legality of John Major's ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, an action described at the time as being in character - "showy, mischievous, slightly absurd, but with a dash of plausibility".

Later, in an article in The Times, he described Mr Major, the then Prime Minister, as "over-promoted, unfit to govern and lacking self-confidence".

"His ideal level of political competence would be Deputy Chief Whip or something of that standing," he went on.

Born in Bristol, Lord Rees-Mogg was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, after which he was recruited as a reporter at the Financial Times.

In 1960, he joined the Sunday Times where he was successively city editor, political and economic editor, and deputy editor before becoming editor in 1967.

During his leadership the newspaper stubbornly defended Richard Nixon against all the Watergate evidence filed by the Washington staff.

But he was a radical editor, making the newspaper's reporting more investigative and its opinions more challenging.

He received a life peerage in 1988 and sat as a cross-bencher, although he had twice in the 1950s stood for Parliament as a Conservative.

He was also a former vice chairman of the BBC and chairman of the Arts Council.