Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of the Independent newspaper and former chairman of the British Board of Film Classification, has died at the age of 88.
Whittam Smith was also the first editor of the Independent and served as First Church Estate Commissioner, a senior member of the Church of England, from 2002 to 2017.
A spokesperson for the family said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of the Independent newspaper, passed away on 29 November 2025, aged 88.
“He remained surrounded by his family until the end and will be greatly missed.
“He is survived by his wife, Valerie, two sons, Benedict and Mark, and three grandchildren.”
Much of Whittam Smith’s early career was spent in financial journalism, working at the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Financial Times and the Times. He held senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Investors Chronicle and the Stock Exchange Gazette.
In 1986, together with Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds – journalists he had worked with at the Daily Telegraph – he launched The Independent and served as its first editor until 1994.
In 1998, he was appointed Chairman of the British Board of Film Classification. There, according to the Independent, his achievements included allowing A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist to be released on home video. He suggested that, one day, film classification would disappear altogether.
Whittam Smith was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2023 for services to the film industry, and was knighted in 2015 for “public service, particularly to the Church of England”.
In July 2017, he was awarded the Canterbury Cross for services to the Church of England by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Whittam Smith was born in June 1937 in Cheshire. In 1940, his family moved to Birkenhead when his father, a clergyman, took over the Wirral Docklands parish. He was educated at Birkenhead School and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, Oxford. After National Service, he worked in a stockbroking firm before moving into journalism.
Amol Rajan, a BBC journalist and another former editor of the Independent, posted on Instagram that he was “deeply saddened” to hear of Whitham Smith’s death, calling her “radical” and “pioneering”.
“Over wine lunches, he was brainy, aloof, tough, kind,” she said. “Elsewhere, he was a financial regulator, film censor and knight.
“Andreas changed British journalism profoundly for the better and forever. With his passing, a great man – and the golden age he represented – has stepped down from the great newsroom in the sky.”
He added: “The Independent was a print produced by the zeitgeist… It always zigzagged where others zigzagged.”
Geordie Greig, editor-in-chief of The Independent, said that staff past and present were “deeply saddened” to hear of Whitham Smith’s death.
“His passion for journalism captured the attention of the entire country and established a global brand that never stopped fighting for journalism that was not beholden to political or economic interests,” he said.
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