MCDOWALL, Keith Desmond CBE 1929-2026

[Richard R]

Obit in the Times of 5 March 2026:

E X T R A C T

Keith McDowall obituary: non-spinning spin doctor

Adviser to James Callaghan, Willie Whitelaw and Michael Foot dies aged 96

… His wife became the Labour peer Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde and predeceased him in 2018. He is survived by his daughters Clare and Alison from his first marriage to Shirley Astbury, which was dissolved in 1985.

Keith Desmond McDowall was born in 1929 in Croydon, the son of Edna and William McDowall, the manager of an engineering works. During the Second World War he endured a difficult adolescence. His father died of cancer when he was 12 and his family’s house was hit by a German flying bomb. By the age of 15 he was an air-raid warden and on leaving Heath Clark Secondary School at the end of the war, he worked as an office boy at the Croydon Times and a library assistant at The Daily Telegraph…

…He remained close to the Labour movement, hosting its leaders at networking parties. The Labour leader John Smith spent his last evening in McDowall’s company and he used his contacts to bring together Tony Blair and business leaders.

After selling KMA in 1998, he enjoyed a vigorous retirement, keeping a yacht and a second home in Cornwall, following the England cricket team on overseas tours and organising jazz concerts at the Reform Club.

Keith McDowall, journalist and civil servant, was born on October 3, 1929. He died on November 22, 2025, aged 96

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/keith-mcdowall-obituary-non-spinning-spin-doctor-pcb6crm3q