Annie Roycroft
{{short description|Ireland's first female newspaper editor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name =Annie Stephens
| honorific_suffix =
| image =File:Annie_Roycroft.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name =Annie Roycroft
| birth_date =2 May 1926
| birth_place =Bangor, Co Down
| death_date =11 January 2019
| death_place =Cork
| nationality =
| education =
| alma_mater =
| known_for =
| notable_works =}}
Annie Roycroft (2 May 1926 – 11 January 2019), was Ireland's first female newspaper editor, working for the County Down Spectator.
Biography
Born Annie Roslyn Roycroft in Bangor, County Down, in May 1926 Roycroft was the fifth of six children born to Kerry woman Annie Stephens and her husband, Cork man Tom Roycroft. He had worked in the Royal Irish Constabulary which had taken him to County Down. Roycroft got her education with Bangor Central Public Elementary School and Technical College before going on to get a job with the local newspaper, the County Down Spectator in 1941. Roycroft began as a junior office assistant but showed a journalists instincts and learned journalistic skills by typing up the reports dictated by the newspapers journalists. She began submitting local news stories and in 1952 she was taken on as a journalist despite misgivings among the teams locally about a woman working in the field. She then took a break working as a clerk for North Down Rural Council before being asked to return as the editor for the Spectator. A member of the National Union of Journalists, so that she knew how to pay her journalists properly, Roycroft had a reputation of standing her ground during reporting of the Troubles. She left County Down and her role as editor in 1983 when she married Joe Stephens and eventually moved to Cork.{{cite web | title=Annie Stephens: Bangor woman was Ireland's first female newspaper editor | website=The Irish News | date=2019-01-26 | url=http://www.irishnews.com/notices/livesremembered/2019/01/26/news/annie-stephens-bangor-woman-was-ireland-s-first-female-newspaper-editor-1534980/ | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2020-08-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805051319/http://www.irishnews.com/notices/livesremembered/2019/01/26/news/annie-stephens-bangor-woman-was-ireland-s-first-female-newspaper-editor-1534980/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web | title=Annie Stephens obituary: One of Ireland’s first female newspaper editors | website=The Irish Times | date=2019-12-14 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/annie-stephens-obituary-one-of-ireland-s-first-female-newspaper-editors-1.3795193 | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2019-02-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216214315/https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/annie-stephens-obituary-one-of-ireland-s-first-female-newspaper-editors-1.3795193 | url-status=live }}{{cite web | last=Archer | first=Bimpe | title=Pioneering female Co Down editor Annie Roycroft has died in Cork aged 92 | website=The Irish News | date=2019-01-15 | url=http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2019/01/15/news/pioneering-female-co-down-editor-annie-roycroft-has-died-in-cork-aged-92-1528103/ | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2019-11-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115005233/https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2019/01/15/news/pioneering-female-co-down-editor-annie-roycroft-has-died-in-cork-aged-92-1528103/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web | last=Sharman | first=David | title=County Down Spectator editor Annie Roycroft dies aged 92 | website=HoldtheFrontPage | date=2002-07-22 | url=https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2019/news/pioneering-editor-who-ran-weekly-for-three-decades-dies-aged-92/ | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2019-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216112734/https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2019/news/pioneering-editor-who-ran-weekly-for-three-decades-dies-aged-92/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web | title=The Talk of Bangor | website=The New York Times | date=1972-04-01 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/01/archives/a-city-only-l5-miles-from-belfast-feels-little-of-hatred-and-terror.html | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2019-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216112737/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/01/archives/a-city-only-l5-miles-from-belfast-feels-little-of-hatred-and-terror.html | url-status=live }}
Roycroft was very involved in the Church of Ireland. She had been a Sunday school teacher from the age of 16. When she moved to Cork she turned her time to working with the church. Her husband died before her and Roycroft died in Beaumont, Cork in 2019. Roycroft wrote her memoirs, Memoirs of a Scribbler, in 1995. She is remembered in the book Bangor In The Eighties which is dedicated to her.{{cite web | title=BOOK REVIEW: Fascinating and nostalgic look back at Bangor in the eighties | website=Belfast News Letter | date=2012-11-12 | url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/whats-on/entertainment/book-review-fascinating-and-nostalgic-look-back-at-bangor-in-the-eighties-1-4467655 | access-date=2019-12-16 | archive-date=2019-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216112733/https://www.newsletter.co.uk/whats-on/entertainment/book-review-fascinating-and-nostalgic-look-back-at-bangor-in-the-eighties-1-4467655 | url-status=live }}
References and sources
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roycroft, Annie}}
Category:People from Bangor, County Down
Category:Newspaper editors from Northern Ireland
Category:Writers from County Down
Category:20th-century women journalists from Northern Ireland
Category:21st-century women journalists from Northern Ireland
Category:20th-century journalists from Northern Ireland