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Charles Wheeler (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Sir Charles Cornelius Wheeler CMG
(Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler, 15 March 1923 – 4 July 2008) 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
.
, Germany
, in 1923, where his father was working for the British Council
. The family later moved to Hamburg
where his father was employed by a shipping
company. 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. He enlisted in the Royal Marines
in 1941, rising to the rank of Captain
. As part of a secret naval intelligence unit assembled by Ian Fleming
- 30 Assault Unit, he participated in the Normandy Landings as second-in-command to Patrick Dalzel-Job
.
, initially as a sub-editor
at the Latin America
n division of the World Service
. 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
. He subsequently returned to the UK, becoming a producer
on the fledgling current affairs series Panorama
in 1956. As part of Panoramas 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. Having declined an offer to become the programme's editor, 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. 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
series. He had been working on a programme about the Dalai Lama until a few weeks before his death.
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 Mayor of London
Boris Johnson
, and Shirin Wheeler, the BBC's Brussels
correspondent.
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 World War II
. 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.
Wheeler died of lung cancer
at his Horsham home on 4 July 2008.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler, 15 March 1923 – 4 July 2008) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
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
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
television programmes including Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
and Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
.
Early life
Wheeler was born in BremenBremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, in 1923, where his father was working for the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
. The family later moved to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
where his father was employed by a shipping
Ship transport
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...
company. Educated at the Cranbrook School
Cranbrook School, Kent
Cranbrook School is a co-educational boarding and day grammar school located in Cranbrook, Kent in South East England.-Brief history:Founded in 1518 for poor boys of the town, it received a charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1574. Although in 1817 the town petitioned the Master of the Rolls,...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, his first job was as an errand boy at the Daily Sketch
Daily Sketch
The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers but in 1925 Rothermere offloaded it to William and Gomer Berry The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper,...
newspaper at the age of 17. He enlisted in the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
in 1941, rising to the rank of Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
. As part of a secret naval intelligence unit assembled by Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
- 30 Assault Unit, he participated in the Normandy Landings as second-in-command to Patrick Dalzel-Job
Patrick Dalzel-Job
Patrick Dalzel-Job , was a distinguished British Naval Intelligence Officer and Commando of World War II. He was also an accomplished linguist, author, mariner, navigator, parachutist, diver and skier....
.
Career
After leaving the Royal Marines in 1947, Wheeler joined the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, initially as a sub-editor
Copy editing
Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...
at the Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n division of the World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. Wheeler's long career as a foreign correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
began with a three-year posting to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1950, partly thanks to his fluency in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. He subsequently returned to the UK, becoming a producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
on the fledgling current affairs series Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
in 1956. As part of Panoramas team, he travelled to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
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
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
re-entered Hungary and crushed the revolt. Having declined an offer to become the programme's editor, he was later assigned to New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
(where he reported extensively on the 1959 Tibetan uprising
1959 Tibetan uprising
The 1959 Tibetan uprising, or 1959 Tibetan Rebellion began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the Communist Party of China since the Seventeen Point Agreement in 1951...
) and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he covered the American Civil Rights Movement and the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
between 1965 and 1973. In the later years of his television career he was the American correspondent of Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
.
Wheeler was the first presenter of BBC World's Dateline London
Dateline London
Dateline London is a weekly news discussion programme shown on both BBC News and BBC World News. The programme, presented by Gavin Esler, with Nik Gowing and Lyse Doucet acting as relief presenters, features a roundtable panel of foreign and British journalists who discuss the week's top news...
discussion programme. He remained active in his later years as a presenter of documentary series on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
and a contributor to the network's From Our Own Correspondent
From our own Correspondent
From Our Own Correspondent is a BBC radio programme in which BBC correspondents broadcast monologues on topical current events from countries outside the UK...
series. He had been working on a programme about the Dalai Lama until a few weeks before his death.
Personal life
He was appointed a CMGOrder of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
in 2001, and was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in the 2006 Birthday Honours
Birthday Honours 2006
The Birthday Honours 2006 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 17 June 2006, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2006.The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged firstly by the country whose ministers advised the Queen on the...
, for services to broadcasting and journalism overseas. Wheeler was married to Dip Singh and the couple had two daughters - the barrister Marina Wheeler
Marina Wheeler
Marina Wheeler is a British barrister, author and columnist. As a lawyer, she specialises in public law, including human rights, and is a member of the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal. She is married to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.-Early life:...
, the wife of the Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
, and Shirin Wheeler, the BBC's Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
correspondent.
In June 2006 Charles Wheeler announced he had discovered that a painting by Alessandro Allori
Alessandro Allori
Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori was an Italian portrait painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school....
of Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo de Medici
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Cosimo I de' Medici was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, reigning as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569.-Biography:...
, which had been given to him in Berlin as a wedding present in 1952, had been looted during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Via the Commission for Looted Art in Europe it was returned to its legitimate owner, the Gemäldegalerie of Berlin
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin, Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It is located on Kulturforum west of Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas...
, from whose possession it had been absent since 1944.
Wheeler died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
at his Horsham home on 4 July 2008.
External links
- Obituary: Sir Charles Wheeler, BBC, Friday, 4 July 2008
- Harold Jackson, Obituary: Charles Wheeler, The Guardian, Friday, July 4, 2008
- Leigh Holmwood, Veteran BBC foreign correspondent Charles Wheeler, 85, dies, The Guardian, Friday, July 4, 2008
- Newsnight Tribute to Charles Wheeler
- 30 Commando Assault Unit - Ian Fleming's 'Red Indians' - Literary James Bond's Wartime Unit RM Capt. Wheeler FIU operated with this unit.