Val Irvine McCalla (3 October 1943 – 22 August 2002) was a Jamaican accountant and media entrepreneur who settled in Britain in 1959. He is best known as the founder of The Voice, a British weekly newspaper aimed at the Britain's black community, which he established in 1982 as a voice for the British African-Caribbean community. He was honoured as a pioneering publisher for the community, but also faced critics who deemed him sensationalistic.^[1]

In the 100 Great Black Britons poll conducted in 1997, Val McCalla was voted number 68.^[2]

Early life

Val McCalla was born in a poor part of Kingston, Jamaica.^[3] After studying accountancy at Kingston College, a Jamaican high school, McCalla travelled to England in May 1959, aged 15.

Career

He joined the RAF, but a perforated eardrum put paid to his dreams of becoming a pilot and instead he honed his skills as a bookkeeper,^[4] leaving in the mid-1960s.^[5]

He then found employment in various accounts and book-keeping positions, before working part-time on a community newspaper, East End News, based near his flat in Bethnal Green.^[6] He started The Voice newspaper in 1982, Britain's first Black owned paper, with a team that included broadcaster Alex Pascall,^[7][8] launching it at the Notting Hill carnival that August,^[9] and bringing in Viv Broughton as marketing manager.^[10] The Voice became a training ground for leading journalists. He owned Chic and Pride magazines, and in 1991 founded The Weekly Journal.^[11]

McCalla died of liver failure on 22 August 2002, aged 58, in Seaford, East Sussex, where he was buried.^[4][12][13]

Legacy

In June 2021, on Windrush Day, Val McCalla was honoured as the founder of The Voice with the installation of a plaque by the Nubian Jak Community Trust outside the newspaper's Brixton offices, Blue Star House.^[14][15][16]