Patrick Sergeant

Patrick Sergeant was born on 17 March 1924 in King's Down, Kent.^[2] He was the son of George Sergeant, a coal merchant, and Rene Sergeant, a converted Roman Catholic.^[3] He attended Beaumont College after his mother insisted on it over his father's preference for Harrow.^[3]

During World War II, Sergeant served as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) from 1945 to 1948, where he was stationed on corvettes.^[2][3] After his military service, Sergeant joined Mullens & Co. a stockbroking firm and the official government broker in the bond market, with assistance from his aunt.^[3] He began his career as a messenger, a role he described as menial. His transition to journalism occurred after meeting Oscar Hobson, the City editor of the News Chronicle which he joined as a reporter in 1948.^[2] In 1953, he joined the Daily Mail, where he became joint deputy City editor.^[3] His writing led to a regular column on his travels in the Soviet Union, which was later expanded into the book Another Road to Samarkand (1955).^[3] He worked for the Daily Mail until 1984.^[2] Later, he served as a director of Daily Mail and General Trust Plc from 1992 to 2004.^[4]

In 1969, with financial backing from Viscount Rothermere, Sergeant launched Euromoney.^[3] In 1984, Sergeant was knighted by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.^[3]

Sergeant took retirement from the board of Euromoney in 2018.^[5]

Sergeant authored several financial publications, including Money Matters (1967) and The Inflation Fighters Handbook (1976).^[3] In 1979, he received the Wincott Award for Financial Journalist of the Year.^[3]

Sergeant lived in The Grove, Highgate from 1961.^[6][3] He was married to Gillian Anne Wilks, a nurse-turned-artist from Cape Town, and they had two daughters: Emma and Harriet.^[7]

Sergeant turned 100 on 17 March 2024,^[6] and died on 18 September.^[8]