26 Facts About Richard Dimbleby

1.

Frederick Richard Dimbleby was an English journalist and broadcaster, who became the BBC's first war correspondent, and then its leading TV news commentator.

2.

Richard Dimbleby was able to maintain interest throughout the all-night election specials.

3.

The annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture was founded in his memory.

4.

Richard Dimbleby was educated at The Mall School, Twickenham, and at Mill Hill School, and began his career in 1931 on the Richmond and Twickenham Times, which his grandfather, Frederick William Dimbleby, had acquired in 1894.

5.

Richard Dimbleby then worked as a news reporter on the Southern Evening Echo in Southampton, before joining the BBC as a radio news reporter in 1936, going on to cover the first Royal tour of Canada, and becoming their first war correspondent.

6.

Richard Dimbleby accompanied the British Expeditionary Force to France and made broadcasts from the battle of El Alamein and the Normandy beaches during the D-Day landings.

7.

Richard Dimbleby was one of the first journalists to experiment with unconventional outside broadcasts, such as when flying in a de Havilland Mosquito accompanying a fighter aircraft raid on France, or being submerged in a diving suit.

Related searches
Elizabeth II
8.

Richard Dimbleby begged him to give her some milk, for the tiny baby she held in her arms.

9.

Richard Dimbleby lay the mite on the ground, threw herself at the sentry's feet and kissed his boots.

10.

Richard Dimbleby described, in another broadcast, the wrecked interior of Hitler's Reich Chancellery at the war's end.

11.

Richard Dimbleby is perhaps best remembered as the commentator on a number of major public occasions, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the funerals of George VI, John F Kennedy and Winston Churchill.

12.

Richard Dimbleby wrote a book about the coronation, Elizabeth Our Queen, which was given free to many schoolchildren at the time.

13.

Richard Dimbleby wrote a London crime novel, Storm at the Hook, published in 1948.

14.

Richard Dimbleby took part in the first Eurovision television relay in 1951 and appeared in the first live television broadcast from the Soviet Union in 1961.

15.

Richard Dimbleby introduced a special programme in July 1962 showing the first live television signal from the United States via the Telstar satellite.

16.

Richard Dimbleby was able to maintain his reporting talents by visiting places like Berlin, standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate a week before the Berlin Wall was erected across it by the communist authorities of East Germany.

17.

Richard Dimbleby's reputation was built upon his ability to describe events clearly yet with a sense of the drama and poetry of the many state occasions he covered.

18.

Richard Dimbleby could improvise extensively if there were delays in the schedule.

19.

Richard Dimbleby showed stamina and imperturbability in marathon election night broadcasts which ran from 10pm, when the polls closed, until around 6 or 7am the following morning.

20.

Richard Dimbleby married Dilys Thomas in Copthorne, West Sussex, in 1937.

21.

In June 1946, Richard Dimbleby was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services as a war correspondent.

22.

On 22 December 1965, Richard Dimbleby died at the age of 52.

23.

Richard Dimbleby had been suffering from testicular cancer which had been diagnosed five years earlier.

24.

Richard Dimbleby decided to admit he was ill with cancer, which, at the time, was a taboo disease to mention.

25.

In 1986 "Celebration of a Broadcaster", commemorating Richard Dimbleby, was held in Westminster Abbey.

Related searches
Elizabeth II
26.

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture was founded in his memory in 1972 and is delivered every year by an influential public figure.