Charles Wheeler (journalist)

Sir Charles Wheeler

Born	Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler (1923-03-15)15 March 1923 Bremen, Germany
Died	4 July 2008(2008-07-04) (aged 85) London, England
Education	Cranbrook School, Kent
Occupation	BBC News foreign correspondent
Notable credit(s)	Newsnight, Dateline London, Panorama

Sir Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler CMG (15 March 1923^[1] – 4 July 2008^[2]), known as Charles Wheeler, was a British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest serving foreign correspondent, serving in the role until his death. Wheeler also had spells as presenter of several BBC current affairs television programmes including Newsnight and Panorama.

Early life

Wheeler was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1923, where his father was working for the British Council.^[3] The family later moved to Hamburg, where his father was employed by a shipping company.^[2] Educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent, his first job was as an errand boy at the Daily Sketch newspaper at the age of 17.^[4] He enlisted in the Royal Marines in 1941,^[2] rising to the rank of captain.

As part of 30 Assault Unit, a secret naval intelligence unit assembled by Ian Fleming, he participated in the Normandy landings as second-in-command to Patrick Dalzel-Job.^[5]

Career

After leaving the Royal Marines in 1947, Wheeler joined the BBC, initially as a sub-editor at the Latin American division of the World Service.^[1] Wheeler's long career as a foreign correspondent began with a three-year posting to Berlin in 1950, partly thanks to his fluency in German.^[1] He subsequently returned to the UK, becoming a producer on the fledgling current affairs series Panorama in 1956.^[1] As part of Panorama's team, he travelled to Hungary to cover what would become known as the Hungarian Uprising. Taking Panorama's camera into the country, despite being told not to, he filmed the jubilant Hungarian reaction to the rebellion. Just hours after Wheeler returned to Britain, Russia re-entered Hungary and crushed the revolt.^[1] Having declined an offer to become the programme's editor,^[3] he was later assigned to New Delhi (where he reported extensively on the 1959 Tibetan uprising) and Washington, D.C., where he covered the American Civil Rights Movement and the Watergate scandal between 1965 and 1973.^[2] In the later years of his television career he was the American correspondent of Newsnight.

Wheeler was the first presenter of BBC World's Dateline London discussion programme. He remained active in his later years as a presenter of documentary series on Radio 4 and a contributor to the network's From Our Own Correspondent. He had been working on a programme about the Dalai Lama until a few weeks before his death.^[3] Following his death, the British Journalism Review established the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism, which is presented annually at a conference co-hosted by the publication and the University of Westminster. Winners of the award to date are Jeremy Paxman, Jeremy Bowen, Lindsey Hilsum and Alan Little.

Personal life

Wheeler was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2001, and was knighted in the 2006 Birthday Honours, for services to broadcasting and journalism overseas. Wheeler was married to Dip Singh and the couple had two daughters: the barrister Marina Wheeler (the wife of the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson) and Shirin Wheeler, the BBC's Brussels correspondent.^[6]

In June 2006 Charles Wheeler announced he had discovered that a painting by Alessandro Allori of Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo de' Medici, which had been given to him in Berlin as a wedding present in 1952, had been looted during the Second World War. Via the Commission for Looted Art in Europe it was returned to its legitimate owner, the Gemäldegalerie of Berlin, from whose possession it had been absent since 1944.^[7]

Wheeler died of lung cancer at his Horsham home on 4 July 2008.^[2]

References

1 2 3 4 5 "Obituary: Charles Wheeler". BBC News. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
1 2 3 4 5 "BBC journalist Wheeler dies at 85". BBC News. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
1 2 3 "Obituary: Charles Wheeler". The Daily Telegraph. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
↑ "On This Day: Correspondents: Charles Wheeler". BBC News. 9 June 2003. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
↑ Jackson, Harold (4 July 2008). "Obituary: Charles Wheeler". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
↑ Booker, Christopher (24 February 2008). "Notebook: EU Parliament votes not to take any notice of the people's wishes,". Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
↑ Harding, Luke (1 June 2006). "Renaissance woman returned to gallery". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-05-03.

External links

Cranbrook

Locations in the parish of Cranbrook	Baker's Cross Coursehorn Hartley Swattenden

Buildings	Angley Mill Anthony's Mill Baker's Cross Mill Church Cranbrook station Dog Kennel Mill Fulling mill at Moat Farm Fulling mill at The Freight Hartridge Mill Hatmill Hockeredge Mill Paley Mill Pin Pond Mill Spratsbourne Mill Strict Baptist Chapel Union Mill Upper Mill

People	See List of people from Cranbrook

Schools	Cranbrook School

Sport, arts and leisure	Cranbrook Colony School Field Swifts Park

Vietnam War correspondents

Print journalists	R. W. Apple Peter Arnett Michael Birch Peter Braestrup Malcolm Browne Wilfred Burchett Dickey Chapelle Robert Elegant Gloria Emerson Bernard Fall Frances FitzGerald Sylvana Foa Joseph Galloway Martha Gellhorn Al Gore David Halberstam Michael Herr Seymour Hersh Marguerite Higgins Takeshi Kaikō Stanley Karnow Donald Kirk Steve Kroft John Pilger Gareth Porter John Sack Murray Sayle Jonathan Schell Sydney Schanberg Neil Sheehan Alexander Shimkin John Steinbeck IV Matthew V. Storin Richard Tregaskis Kate Webb

Photo- journalists	Eddie Adams David Burnett Larry Burrows Robert Capa Gilles Caron Dickey Chapelle Charles Chellapah Neil Davis David Douglas Duncan Charles Eggleston Horst Faas Sean Flynn Chas Gerretsen Barbara Gluck Philip Jones Griffiths Dirck Halstead Henri Huet David Hume Kennerly Catherine Leroy Don McCullin Co Rentmeester Tim Page Toshio Sakai Kyoichi Sawada Dick Swanson Dana Stone Shigeru Tamura Neal Ulevich Nick Ut

Broadcast journalists	Martin Bell Ed Bradley Charles Collingwood Walter Cronkite Murray Fromson Bernard Kalb Peter Kalischer Douglas Kiker Steve Kroft Charles Kuralt George Lewis Ike Pappas Julian Pettifer Bill Plante Dan Rather Clete Roberts Morley Safer Bob Simon Richard Threlkeld Joe Schlesinger

Boris Johnson

Born (1964-06-19) 19 June 1964

Education	European School of Brussels I Ashdown House, East Sussex Eton College Balliol College, Oxford Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford

Journalistic career	The Times (1985–86) Express & Star (1986–87) The Daily Telegraph (1987–99) The Spectator (1999–2005)

Political career	Electoral History Member of Parliament for Henley (2001–2008) Mayor of London elected in 2008 2012 Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (2015–present) Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2016–present)

Books	Friends, Voters, Countrymen (2002) Lend Me Your Ears (2004) The Dream of Rome (2006) Have I Got Views For You (2006) The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History (2014)

Depictions	Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson (2006) When Boris Met Dave (2009)

Family	Marina Wheeler (wife) Stanley Johnson (father) Charlotte Fawcett (mother) Rachel Johnson (sister) Jo Johnson (brother)

Notable ancestors	James Fawcett (grandfather) Ali Kemal (great-grandfather) Elias Avery Lowe (great-grandfather) H. T. Lowe-Porter (great-grandmother)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.