Philip Pembroke Stephens (1903–1937) was a journalist, foreign correspondent for the Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

. He was expelled from 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 June 1934 for his critical reporting of Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 and his campaigning in support of the German Jews. In 1937, reporting from Shanghai on the Japanese invasion of China

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

, he was shot and killed by a Japanese bullet.

Early Life

Born in 1903, (not 1894 as stated in John's Simpson's Unreliable Sources), Stephens was educated at Gresham's School

Gresham's School

Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...

 in Norfolk and, later, at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. After trying out in a couple of different professions, he settled on journalism.

Foreign Correspondent for the Daily Express

As a foreign correspondent for the Daily Express, he reported from Vienna and Paris. At the end of 1933, he was sent to Berlin to replace Sefton Delmer. Unlike Delmer, who had tried to get close to Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

's close associates to get good stories, Stephens examined the effects of the Nazi regime on ordinary people, especially the Jewish population. His articles, criticizing Nazism and uncovering the harsh conditions of the Jews, became increasingly prominent in the Daily Express. The Nazi authorities arrested him twice, before finally expelling him from Germany in June 1934. From London, he continued to write critical articles on the Nazis, until the Daily Express lost its enthusiasm for this.

Death

He was subsequently sent to report on the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...

, the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, and the Japanese invasion of China. In China, he reported on the atrocities of the invading Japanese. According to John Simpson

John Simpson

John Cody Fidler-Simpson CBE is an English foreign correspondent. He is world affairs editor of BBC News. He has spent all his working life at the Corporation...

, he was killed on 18 November 1937, the last day of the Chinese army's stand in Shangai

Battle of Shanghai

The Battle of Shanghai, known in Chinese as Battle of Songhu, was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army of the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War...

. John Gittings

John Gittings

John Gittings is a journalist and author who is mainly known for his work on modern China and the Cold War. From 1983 to 2003, he worked at The Guardian as assistant foreign editor and chief foreign leader-writer....

, however, on his website www.johngittings.com, quotes Five Months of War (Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1938), p. 133 as putting Stephens' death on November 11. Gittings' quotation goes on to describe Stephens as having been shot while watching the fighting from a water tower, when a Japanese machine gunner unexpectedly raised his aim. The Japanese apologized, explaining that they had been shooting at snipers on nearby roof-tops. A friend of Stephens', O'Dowd Gallagher from the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

, wrote the story of Stephens' death and sent it to the Daily Express.

Reporting Style

John Simpson, who researched Stephens for his book Unreliable Sources: How the Twentieth Century was Reported, calls Stephens a 'fearless correspondent', who 'stood out for his objective reporting'. He says his journalism was 'arresting, colourful', he 'was a genuine hero of 20th-century reporting', and that he 'refused to do his reporting from the safety of his office. He always preferred to go and see what was happening for himself. It earned him Beaverbrook's highest prraise, and a much-increased salary; and in the end it cost him his life.' He 'believed that it was his duty' to report on the plight of the Jews living under Nazi rule.