Bill Hagerty was born in Ilford, then part of Essex but now in London’s east end, but has lived in Chiswick for more than thirty years. Leaving grammar school at the age of 16, he joined a local newspaper as a trainee journalist and covered all aspects of the trade until being recruited by the national Sunday paper, Reynold’s News, shortly before it relaunched itself in tabloid format as the Sunday Citizen.

There he moved swiftly from the production department to sport, covering league football and the England-hosted World Cup of 1966, county and Test cricket and boxing, being ringside at three of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali’s bouts against Henry Cooper and Brian London.
Moving on to the features sub-editorial desk of the Daily Sketch, he continued to cover football on Saturdays, initially for the News of the World and later that year, after he joined the Daily Mirror’s features team, for that paper also. It was, he reflected, a remarkably lucrative period.

Sadly, like many other papers, both the Citizen and the Sketch failed to cope with falling circulations and closed a few years later. The Mirror, however, continued to thrive and although the paper’s innovative colour magazine to which he was transferred was deemed a financial failure after a year, he returned to the paper as Features Editor and then Showbusiness Editor, a role that demanded extensive travel, largely to the United States, interviewing such major movie stars as John Wayne, Roger Moore and Richard Burton and music icons of the time, including the Rolling Stones and Neil Diamond.

During the many years he spent with Mirror Group, Hagerty filled assistant editor roles on all three titles (Daily and Sunday Mirror and The People). A brief break from the Mirror organisation saw him edit the Sunday edition of the Today newspaper before returning to become deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror and then deputy and acting editor of the daily before being appointed editor of The People.

The death of proprietor Robert Maxwell and the resulting change of ownership of the titles saw the departure of hundreds of staff, including Hagerty, who then changed editorial direction, becoming film and theatre critic of the Today newspaper and, after that paper’s closure, many other publications both in Britain and abroad. He reviewed theatre for a total of 17 years while also editing two magazines on contract and writing the definitive history of the Daily Mirror, Read All About It.

He was editor of the media journal British Journalism Review, of which he remains Chairman Emeritus, and although now semi-retired maintains connections with the newspaper industry via membership of the London Press Club board of directors. He also writes about football as a contributing editor to Bees United, the Brentford FC supporters’ group.

Bill Hagerty has three children and five grandchildren from a previous marriage and a son from his marriage to the journalist Liz Vercoe. Two of his sons are journalists and his daughter is headteacher of a school in Kensington.

In October 2023 Bill was awarded the title 'Journalist Laureate 2023' by the London Press Club for his lifetime of outstanding work both as a journalist and in his role as an active and passionate ambassador for journalism.

Journalist Julia Langdon has worked with him and known him for many years. Read her piece on why she thinks the award is richly deserved: Former Fleet Street editor, Chiswick resident Bill Hagerty, is named Journalist Laureate 2023