Frank Johnson

Frank Robert Johnson (20 January 1943 – 15 December 2006) was an English journalist and editor.

Education Johnson was born to a working class family in London. He was raised in Stoke Newington, and lived mostly at the family home into his thirties.

Career Johnson began his career in 1960 at the Walthamstow Post, and was a junior reporter at the North-West Evening Mail in Barrow-in-Furness from 1965 to 1966. Two books of his writings were published, Out of Order (1982) and Election Year (1983).

He wrote for The Times as a parliamentary sketch writer, then as a foreign correspondent in Paris and Bonn, from 1981 to 1988, before moving to The Sunday Telegraph as a columnist and editor from 1988 to 1995. He was the editor of the conservative Spectator magazine from 1995 to 1999, before returning to The Daily Telegraph.

Personal life Johnson was an Anglican. He married Virginia Fraser, the widow of Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, in 1998. He died from cancer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 15 December 2006, aged 63. Though his declining health led him to step down as the Telegraphs sketch writer, he remained as a columnist for the paper, and wrote until the week of his death. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the south of France, where he and his wife owned a home.