Other livesNHS This article is more than 11 years oldObituaryJonathan Street obituary
This article is more than 11 years oldMy friend Jonathan Street, who has died aged 69, after a short illness following a fall at his home, was a public relations innovator specialising in healthcare and a trailblazer in NHS communications.
The son of a diplomat, Jonathan was born in Oxford and educated at Tonbridge school, Kent. He started off as a junior reporter on the Kentish Times in their Sidcup office in 1961. He later moved to Lewisham in south-east London as a senior PR officer for the local council, where I first met him. He honed his succinct writing style in Lewisham library and won the Somerset Maugham award for his second novel, Prudence Dictates (1972).
Jonathan joined North West Thames regional health authority in 1981, mediating between health service managers and the media, encouraging the flow of information to the public in his crisp, clear manner. In 1995, Jonathan set up his own company Jonathan Street Public Relations, specialising in public sector PR and crisis management. He worked on many headline-grabbing cases – supporting the NHS following the convictions of Harold Shipman and Beverley Allitt, as well as fronting the health service response to train crashes and bomb attacks.
Jonathan and his first wife, Cynthia Taylor, were passionate about CND. During one demonstration in the Strand, he announced: "I have every right to be here. My great-grandfather was the architect of this building." Jonathan was modest, but also fiercely proud of his illustrious background: his great-grandfather George Edmund Street had designed the Royal Courts of Justice; and Jonathan's father, John, had been ambassador to the Malagasy Republic (now Madagascar).
Some years after Cynthia's death in 2006, Jonathan met Susan Castillo, a professor of American studies at King's College London. They married in March 2011 and set up home in an oast house near Tunbridge Wells, which they restored together. Outside work, Jonathan was a book-lover and film fanatic, particularly fond of French New Wave cinema and classic Hollywood film noir. One of the founding members of the Campaign for Real Ale, he enjoyed nothing more than sipping a pint of Harveys at his village pub and revelled in the peace and solitude of his home, where deer would wander into the garden from the nearby forest.
Susan survives him, along with five stepchildren.
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