Obituary: Stuart Ross, Director of News at TfL

It is with unbelievable sadness that we announce the death of Stuart Ross, Director of News at TfL.

Stuart was one of the first press officers we found ourselves working closely with here at LR Towers. To begin with this was simply due to his beat – at the time he was covering London Underground press within TfL. He was also one of the first to support us wholeheartedly in what we were doing and would patiently hunt down obscure answers and documents, and set up interviews and site visits which at the time our readership levels meant we had no real right to demand.

“I don’t mind what you write,” I still remember him telling me once in the early days, whilst handing over some documents on upgrade progress which he knew we’d be critical of, “just as long as it’s accurate and honest.”

That expectation of honesty and accuracy goes a long way to summing up what Stuart’s approach to PR was like. Just as much as he expected it from the coverage that we – and other media sources – provided, he also expected it from within TfL itself.

Indeed for a while something of a guilty pleasure for me was watching Stuart at TfL press events. His knowledge of the Underground and its systems, built up over many years at TfL, could sometimes rival that of its engineers and senior managers. Watching Stuart alternately become subtly tenser or calmer based on the technical accuracy (or implications) of the comments his ostensibly expert charges were relating to the assembled journalistic masses was always entertaining.

I particularly remember one time when he caught me doing this during an event at which the current Mayor was present. In full flight the Mayor accidentally disclosed a contractually sensitive piece of information, something luckily (for TfL) not picked up on as important by the assembled general press.

As his expression got stonier we somehow caught each others’ eyes. I raised an eyebrow, he subtly nodded a negative. Then amidst the general bustle afterwards he appeared at my shoulder.

“Yes I know.” He said, before I could say anything. “I understand if you want to run it now, but if you let me try and clear it first I’ll see if I can get you more than just that in return.”

I was more than happy to trust him, and a day later he was as good as his word. Just as he always was.

Stuart’s trust – both the giving and receiving of it – was something upon which we placed great value here at LR Towers. We have always believed wholeheartedly in writing articles that are thorough, not fast, and this was something that Stuart went out of his way to help us do. Whether it was through securing embargoed copies of sensitive documents often well ahead of time, or simply through not asking too many questions about how we occasionally seemed to still know – in detail – what they contained when he couldn’t.

It was at the end, as it had been at the beginning – he didn’t mind what we wrote, as long as it was accurate.

Stuart passed away from cancer aged just 42. His wife, daughter and friends are not alone in mourning his passing. His tragically early death has robbed London, and the worlds of both PR and transport, of a man who genuinely cared about his job and this city. More than almost anyone I have ever met, he also recognised the importance of truth and integrity in the service of all three – service that, through his crisis communications role at TfL during 7/7 – encompassed some of the darkest times this city has known since WW2.

“London’s transport, and Londoners, if they knew it, had a defender of deep integrity.” Sir Peter Hendy is quoted as saying over on Ross Lydall’s own obituary for Stuart. “His tragically early death robs us of what he might of achieved, but makes us all thankful of what he did do.”

We – and I – could not agree more. It was an honour to know him.

10 comments

  1. I am immensely sad to hear this. I knew Stuart and worked with him and his team frequently before I retired. Based on JB’s reported LR Towers experience, it is probably down to him that LU got far less negative coverage over the SSL signalling woes than it probably deserved. I can’t add any more as JB has said it all far more eloquently than I can.

  2. Thanks for bringing to our attention the sterling efforts of a dedicated servant to London and by extension the Nation, who has sadly passed on so young.

  3. Beautifully written. Thank you for a fine tribute to a great man. We are all going to miss him terribly. We often used to say if you cut him in two, there would be TfL running through him like a stick of rock. I’ve never met someone so dedicated to their job nor passionate about London’s transport. It was infectious. It’s lovely to know others felt that too and appreciated as much as his colleagues did.

  4. Stuart is not somebody I knew, but anyone who can say – and mean – “I don’t mind what you write, just as long as it’s accurate and honest” and assists in meeting that challenge will always be a loss.

  5. It’s so nice to read that you held him in such high regard. You’re so right ‘it was an honour to know him’.

  6. Yesterday we said goodbye to Stuart at a really wonderful event at City Hall.

    I worked alongside Stuart from the very start of my time at TfL – He worked for me as we prepared to launch the Congestion Charge but it was always clear that was marking time until the Tube joined the TfL family when he took over the reins of the Press Office for LU.

    Thereafter we worked alongside each other – I looked after the Surface Transport brief as he looked after LU.

    It was a time of astonishing and usually very positive change and we were lucky, very lucky indeed, to work with a truly world class team at TfL.

    Throughout it all Stuart was the ideal colleague and friend, rock solid, utterly loyal and completely on the side of getting the message across with fairness and accuracy.

    He lived the tenet that I had been brought up with – that as a professional responsible for media relations you had two bosses – The people in the big offices upstairs, and the people on the other end of the phone. Sadly it all too often isn’t like that now in very many places!

    He lived too by the rule that if a fair question was asked that it was your job to find out the answer and relay it as soon as possible to the person who had asked it.

    TfL’s brief was massive, massively political, of massive interest and relevance to a massive audience and the net result was a very, very busy office. He, and others, built a truly astonishing team to soak up that challenge

    Stuart was a key part of some groundbreaking changes – Ensuring that we never forgot the fact that despite TfL’s national and international relevance we remained an (albeit very large) local transport authority, ensuring that the diversity of the Capital was reflected in the opportunities we gave to young aspirant press officers and ensuring that the often overwhelming political pressures coming from City Hall, and from some areas of the media didn’t get in the way of getting the job done.

    When the opportunity arose to climb the ladder Stuart justifiably did so, respected by his peers, his team and the whole of the organisation he served so wonderfully well.

    London has lost a rare and wonderful thing – A man who truly cared about getting it right, for the right reasons. TfL will miss him, but more than that, his family, and his huge number for friends and colleagues will miss him – But we’ll never forget him.

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