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Norris Dewar McWhirter, CBE (August 12, 1925 - April 19, 2004) was a writer, right wing political activist, co-founder of the Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother, Ross McWhirter, were known internationally for the Guinness Book of Records, a book they wrote and annually updated together between 1955 and 1975. After Ross' assassination in 1975, Norris continued alone as editor.
Early life
McWhirter was the son of William McWhirter, editor of the Sunday Pictorial newspaper, and Margaret Williamson ('Bunty'). He was born at 10 Branscombe Gardens, ("Griffnock" after Griffnock Church in Glasgow where the McWhirters were married) Winchmore Hill, London, N21. His elder brother Kennedy was born in 1923. In 1929 as William was working on the founding of the Northcliffe Newspapers chain of provincial newspapers, the family moved to Aberfoyle, in Broad Walk Winchmore Hill. Like his brothers Norris was educated at Marlborough College and Oxford University (Trinity College), where, at his choice, he completed his law degree in two years rather than the usual three.
Sports
Ross and Norris both became sports journalists in 1950. In 1951 they published Get to Your Marks and later in 1951 they founded an agency to provide facts and figures to Fleet Street, setting out, in Norris's words: "to supply facts and figures to newspapers, yearbooks, encyclopedias, and advertisers."
Norris came to particular public attention while working for the BBC as a sports commentator. On May 6, 1954, Norris McWhirter kept the time when Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile. After the race, McWhirter began his announcement:
- As a result of Event Four, the one mile, the winner was R.G. Bannister of Exeter and Merton Colleges, in a time which, subject to ratification, is a track record, an English native record, a United Kingdom record, a European record, in a time of three minutes...
....at which the rest of McWhirter's announcement was drowned out in the enthusiastic uproar.
One of the athletes covered was runner Christopher Chataway, the employee at Guinness who recommended them to Sir Hugh Beaver. After an interview in which the Guinness directors enjoyed testing the twins' knowledge of records and unusual facts, the brothers agreed to start work on the book in 1954. In August 1954 the first slim green volume - 198 pages long - was at the bookstalls, and in four more months it was England's No. 1 nonfiction best-seller
Political activity
He was an active Conservative in the early 1960s and fought, unsuccessfully, to recapture Orpington in the 1964 and 1966 UK general elections after its loss to the Liberals in the 1962 by-election.
Both he and his brother Ross held right-wing views on topics such as immigration, Rhodesia, South Africa, British membership of the European Economic Community and Northern Ireland. Always vigorous campaigners for the their version of liberty of the individual, they founded the "National Association for Freedom", later "The Freedom Association", in the 1970s. This organisation initiated legal challenges against the trade union movement in the U.K., CND and the E.E.C. in Brussels, and continues its political activities to this day.
Ross McWhirter was a constant critic of British policy in Northern Ireland, and called for a "tougher" response by the British army against Irish republicans. Ross was murdered by the IRA after offering a reward for information leading to the apprehension of those carrying out a bombing campaign in London at the time.
Norris McWhirter was a member of the Secretariat of the anti-communist European Freedom Campaign group, established in London at an Inaugural Rally at Westminster Central Hall on 10th December 1988. This group's co-ordinating committee consisted almost exclusively of representatives from countries behind the Iron Curtain.
Record Breakers and later events
Both brothers were regulars on the BBC show Record Breakers. They were noted for their photographic memory, enabling them to provide detailed answers to any questions from the audience about entries in the Guinness Book of Records.
After Ross's death, Norris continued to appear on the show, eventually making him one of the most recognisable people on children's television in the 1970s and 1980s. Norris McWhirter was made a CBE in 1980.
In 1985 he launched an unsuccessful defamation case against the Independent Broadcasting Authority for the TV programme Spitting Image which had inserted a subliminal image of McWhirter's face imposed on the body of a naked woman.
He retired from the Guinness Book of Records in 1985 and from Record Breakers in 1994. Afterwards, he continued to write, editing a new reference book, his Book of Millennium Records, in 1999.
Norris McWhirter died from a heart attack following a tennis match, at his home in Wiltshire, on the 19 April 2004. He was aged 78.
Selected bibliography
Sports and general encyclopædia
- Dunlop Illustrated Encyclopedia of Facts
- Get To Your Marks (1951, with Ross McWhirter)
- Guinness Book of Records (1955-1975, with Ross McWhirter)
- Guinness Book of Records (1976-1985)
- Guinness Sports Record Book (1977-1978)
- Book of Millennium Records ISBN 1852278056
Personal
- Ross: The Story of a Shared Life ISBN 0902782231
- Winchmore Hill Lives S Delvin (1991) (Contributor) ISBN 0721208967
Political
- Treason at Maastricht - criticism of the Treaty of Maastricht
1925 births | British journalists | 2004 deaths | Former students of Trinity College, Oxford | Commanders of the Order of the British Empire | Guinness World Record | Euroscepticism | UK conservative activists (extra-parliamentary)
"Norris McWhirter"