After a month's unpaid trial for the Manchester Daily Despatch in 1937 he was soon writing as Traveller

After a month's unpaid trial for the Manchester Daily Despatch in 1937 he was soon writing as "Traveller" for the Sporting Chronicle at the princely salary of £8 a week "I had to write 5,000 words a day in long hand," he said. Sadly for his coaches, Cambridge was too close to Newmarket.Having acquired the racing bug and a degree in agriculture, he considered a career in Turf journalism and was introduced by his father to Nathaniel Booth, general manager of the Sporting Chronicle. Powerful and fit, Richard shone at all sports and was expected to emulate his father. Richard Baerlein was born in 1910, and educated at Eton and Cambridge, following the steps of his famous father Edgar, the world Real Tennis champion.

First, hunting U-boats with Coastal Command, the tall, blond, amiable extrovert, mentioned in dispatches in 1942, was promoted Squadron Leader, one of a select band of hand-picked pilots on stand-by to fly VIPs, including the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. The Baerleins were originally of Bavarian extraction, and came to England in 1832. He excelled at both pastimes, as he did at flying, eating, betting, writing and being the life and soul of the party. Because he knew horses and understood every branch of the racing and breeding industry he became indisputably one of the few all-time great racing journalists - after distinguished service in the Royal Air Force, which he joined on the outbreak of the Second World War. Richard Baerlein used to list two recreations - golf and drinking champagne. Like the General he believed, with Hamlet, "Rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument".Douglas JohnsonGilbert Prol, civil servant, diplomat and author: born Tunis 31 May 1926; diplomatic posts in Paris, Morocco, Ethiopia, Algeria 1953-62; Office of President de Gaulle 1963-67; Secretary-General, Air France 1967-74, managing director 1974-82; Ambassador to Tunisia 1983-85; Ambassador to Japan 1985-87; Secretary General, Ministry of External Relations 1987- 88; Ambassador to Italy 1988-91; married 1949 Huguette Cuchet- Cheruzel (three sons); died Paris 8 March 1995.. He attached himself to those who opposed the Treaty of Maastricht and who supported the national interests of France, notably Philippe de Villiers. His book La Grandeur de la France, published in 1992, was a vicious attack on the socialism that had split French society in two and had diminished French national sovereignty.

But he also picked up the idea that the authorities in Ottawa would be thwarted if de Gaulle proceeded by ship across the Atlantic and up the Saint Lawrence to Montreal. He was one of the small group that prepared in the greatest secrecy the detailed planning of the journey that culminated in the "Vive le Qubec libre" speech.Prol's venture into politics was polemical. He reported that he had never known a colder or more hostile reception. But he never did, and as the journalists rushed for their telephones, a relaxed de Gaulle would hand his notes, which he had never consulted, to Prol and ask, "How did it go?"It was in 1966 that Prol was sent to Ottawa to begin the arrangements for de Gaulle's visits to Canada the following year. He not only took part in the minute preparation of the material that de Gaulle imposed upon himself and his staff, he was also responsible for the procedure - above all, organising the questions to be asked.

Since it was the voice of France speaking, there was to be no improvisation.But Prol has described how he sat next to de Gaulle during theses lengthy sessions, wracked with nervousness, fearful that the General would lose his way in the elegant complexity of his argument. It was Prol who was responsible for the organisation of the famous press conferences which the General usually held twice a year. It is not surprising that he was an outstanding chess player.Naturally it was his experience of working with de Gaulle that most marked him. He was a diplomat who directed the Quai d'Orsay at the difficult time of the first co-habitation between the Socialist President and a right-wing government, who was ambassador in Tunis, Tokyo and finally (1988-91) in Rome. And having voluntarily retired from officialdom at the age of 64, he became an active politician, a journalist and author. In all these activities, whether he was endeavouring to soothe a de Gaulle who had been irritated by the late arrival of the newspapers, whether he was negotiating with airline pilots about their salaries, or whether he was reconciling Prime Minister Chirac's furious attempts to intervene in foreign affairs and President Mitterrand's obstinate belief that this was his domain, he showed the same patience, persistence and skill.

Gilbert Prol had a distinguished and unusual career Unusual because it was so varied. A product of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, he became a civil servant who worked in Morocco before becoming de Gaulle's press attach. Then for 17 years he was a businessman, secretary-general and the President of Air France. But in Benson's case he was not a lawyer, yet the legal profession is his lasting debtor.Henry Alexander Benson, chartered accountant: born 2 August 1909; partner Coopers & Lybrand (formerly Cooper Brothers & Co) 1934-75; CBE 1946, GBE 1971; Kt 1964; Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England 1975-83; Chairman, Royal Commission on Legal Services 1976-79; created 1981 Baron Benson; married 1939 Virginia (Ginny) Macleod (two sons, one daughter); died 5 March 1995.. If he embraced the profession, the profession warmly embraced him.Men are rightly said to be debtors to their own profession. He failed to detect from government a principled response to this fundamental issue. Not surprisingly, the draconian cuts in legal aid eligibility of 1993 were anathema to him.These very disappointments emphasised one of Henry Benson's great virtues.