> Why have I got that Avengers brolly and hat in my mind? Was it an image above his column?

The Image you have, William, is of John Taylor. He was the editor of Weekend, and he also had a weekly column in the periodical. There was a faint resemblance between Taylor and Patrick Macnee (hence your recolection); and Taylor enhanced that by sporting a bowler and brolly for the photograph which adorned his page. Invariably, the said photo, would be of Taylor leering over some barely post-pubescent "dolly-bird"---whose disdain, for the tubby letcher's intentions, would be revealed in a thought-balloon, above her head e.g. dolly-bird leaning over side of yacht and displaying the seat of her union jack knickers to Taylor's hovering hand. Thought bubble above his head would be:

'Being a gentleman, I can't bring myself to strike the flag.' Thought bubble above girl's head wold be: ' You better not, matey, or it'll be the last post for you!' (get the idea?)

Anyroad, to return to the subject of Douglas Fairey: He always made much of being ' a lad from Hartlepool' and of having been 'an old sweat' (served in the army). The opinions he expressed in Sound & Fury were predictable, curmudgeonly, and often illogicale.g '

The perfume industry are trying to persuade us old sweats that we ought to start smelling nice for the missus. They say that if we don't like the idea of dabbing eau-de-whatsit under our armpits--then it's because we might be repressed homosexuals! Ha! Ha! I'm sure wifey can disabuse you of that notion! Can't you dear? Anyway, I would rather be a repressed homosexual than smell like that lot!'

Mrs Fairey was often referred to in the context of her crush on the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. And I recall Fairey writing about coming home one night to find his wife heart-broken and sobbing: 'Yuri's dead, she said.'