17 Facts About Hugh Lunghi

Hugh Albert Lunghi was a British military interpreter and veteran of World War II.

Hugh Lunghi served as an interpreter for Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the war, often accompanying Churchill to summits with other world leaders.

Hugh Lunghi was the first British soldier to enter Hitler's bunker in Berlin in 1945.

Hugh Lunghi kept one volume of Hitler's Brockhaus Enzyklopadie from the bunker as a memento.

Hugh Lunghi was born at the British Legation in Tehran, Persia on 3 August 1920.

Hugh Lunghi's father, Phillip Lunghi, was an economic adviser at the legation.

The Lunghi family returned to the United Kingdom when Hugh Lunghi was ten months old.

Hugh Lunghi attended Abingdon School, Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, until 1939, where he was Head Boy and captained the 1st XV at rugby for a record three consecutive years.

Hugh Lunghi studied Greek and Latin at the University of Oxford.

Hugh Lunghi interpreted for Field Marshal Montgomery in 1948 at crisis meetings at the Kremlin during the Berlin Blockade.

Although, as a favour by Stalin to Hugh Lunghi, she was given permission to leave the Soviet Union, she was then taken off the train bringing her to the West after first being poisoned by the KGB.

Only many years later did Hugh Lunghi discover that she had subsequently been sent to Siberia.

Hugh Lunghi had a daughter by his wartime marriage to Helen Kaplan, which was dissolved.

Hugh Lunghi became deputy head of current affairs commentaries and then head of the Central European department, which broadcast to Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Hugh Lunghi continued his campaign for freedom of expression as director from 1980 of the Writers' and Scholars' Educational Trust, and as editor of its journal, Index on Censorship.

Hugh Lunghi was able to revisit Russia in the 1990s, later lectured on Soviet affairs to universities, and was an invaluable source of information and wartime reminiscence for historians.

Hugh Lunghi was survived by his three daughters; the eldest, Xanthe, has been planning adviser to the NFU; Melissa has worked for many years for the NHS; and Diana is a retail fashion manager.