Dimbleby, Richard

Richard Dimbleby, in full Richard Frederick Dimbleby, (born May 25, 1913, Richmond, Surrey, England—died December 22, 1965, London), pioneer radio news reporter and the first of Britain’s great broadcast journalists. He was the first war correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); his voice became familiar to most Britons via radio, and early in the television era his imposing visual presence became equally well known.

The son of editor and statesman Frederick J.G. Dimbleby, Richard worked on the newspaper owned by his family, the Richmond and Twickenham Times, after graduating from secondary school. Five years later, after working for several other newspapers, he persuaded the BBC to engage him in its Topical Talks Department (1936). He was a self-assured articulate young man, and he soon found his way into an assignment that only later acquired a name: radio news reporter. He was, in fact, one of the inventors of broadcast journalism, and, as he felt his way in that new craft, he created traditions that would guide the future course of radio and, later, television reporting.

The BBC did not have a foreign correspondent until it sent Dimbleby to Spain to cover the Civil War. It created the title “war correspondent” for him at the outbreak of World War II, and he covered the war on the ground in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and in the air with the Royal Air Force over Germany.

By the end of the war, Dimbleby had become a trusted national figure. He was the quintessential anchorman for television coverage of the momentous events of state and politics. He was the host of Panorama, an influential BBC public-affairs weekly documentary program, and he was the natural choice to report and interpret the great rites and rituals of the realm, from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (1953) to the funeral of Winston Churchill (1965).

During his coverage of World War II, Dimbleby wrote several books; throughout his television heyday, he contributed frequently to radio programs; and he never ceased a drumfire of correspondence in newspapers and journals—all the while maintaining an active involvement in the management of the family newspaper, where his career had begun.

Two of Dimbleby’s children, David and Jonathan, also became television journalists of distinction. Richard Dimbleby’s memory is perpetuated by the Dimbleby Awards for distinguished contributions by broadcast journalists to their profession.