Can anyone identify the war correspondents

Discussion in 'Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy' started by Fatboy Coxy, Feb 4, 2023.

  1. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    British Army Lieutenant General Arthur Percival meeting with war correspondents shortly before the surrender of Singapore, circa late Jan 1942.
    Photographer Fred E. Palmer
    Source ww2dbaseImperial War Museum

    Percival is second on the right, the guy with the tin helmet, looking very smug may be an aide, presumably the rest are war correspondents, but can we put a name to any of them?
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Good puzzle there.

    One line of inquiry could be:
    Might the website owners not be interested, even know?
    From: Reflections on War Memory

    You could try: Colin Smith, war correspondent, expert on military history, war reporter and author of fiction who has written a book on the fall of Singapore (Note no date seen on website).

    A slightly unusual way ahead. Try looking to see if this Australian general's two photos with correspondents can help, perhaps he mentions them in his book (is the general who escaped from Singapore?): https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/resources/bitter-fate-australians-malaya-singapore

    According to this 2014 SOAS thesis there were twenty correspondents in Singapore at the time. See: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/20319/1/McCrum_3646.pdf

    One book refers to all correspondents being evacuated on 11/2/1942. See: Incredible_Tretchikoff: Life of an artist and adventurer.

    How about this book? Though I doubt it as it appears on Google Books minus any ID for the press: The Fall of Malaya and Singapore - Rare Photographs from Wartime by Jon Diamond. First published in Great Britain in 2015 by PEN & SWORD MILITARY

    Could this be relevant?
    From 'Why Singapore Fell', by Australian Lt.Gen. Gordon Bennett, published 1945

    The only correspondent id'd was an American C. Yates MacDaniel, who wrote a book on his escape from Singapore. There are a few photos of him, I don't think they match him. Would an American be required to wear military uniform? I don't know, though expect it. See: China Rhyming » Blog Archive » The Last One Out: Yates McDaniel, World War II’s Most Daring Reporter
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2023
  3. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    The one on the left could possibly be Ian Morrison, The Times war correspondent. In his book 'Malayan Postscript' he refers to a Press Conference with Percival at around this time.
    Ian Morrison (journalist) - Wikipedia

    Tim
     
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  4. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    Hi Tim, I think your right about him
     
  5. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    Second on the left could be Alan Moorhead, and third on the left Alexander Clifford, see Alan Moorehead - Wikipedia the photo of them in North Africa, Clifford appears to have the same spectacles on, and is bigger than Moorhead. Although both were North Africa correspondents, Operation Crusader would have finished by the end of 1941, and this photo is likely taken in Jan-Feb 1942. Not unbelievable that they were sent to Singapore, to report on the unfolding disaster.,
     
  6. Waddell

    Waddell Well-Known Member

    I had a look through Tom Pocock's and Thornton McCamish's biographies of Moorehead and he was in the desert when Singapore fell and never went there. The furthest he went east during the war was India and Ceylon. He did wish to return to Australia after the Fall of Singapore, but his editors told him there were enough reporters in Australia recently evacuated from Singapore and kept him in place. I'm pretty sure Clifford was with him at the time.

    Scott
     
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  7. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    Hi Scott, thank you for this. I must admit the photo doesn't offer much to ID those two. I focused on the one with glasses, thinking he'd be easier to find. Alexander Clifford offered up a possibility, and Moorhead seems to be where ever Clifford was, so that's how I tried to make that fit. So if it isn't Moorhead, I think its unlikely the other one is Clifford. My other option for the WC with glasses, is Leonard Mosley, see Leonard Mosley parachuted into Normandy with a typewriter, although I didn't think he was ever in the Far East, but on reflection it may well be.
     
  8. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Steve,

    I assume there is no list of the twenty correspondents who were evacuated (in Post 2 referred to)?
     
  9. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    Hi David, yes no list, and I can only take the number as a round figure.

    However, The Last Days of the United States Asiatic Fleet, is very useful, in the text I can find the following

    Cecil Brown – US, CBS

    Charles Yates McDaniel – US, Associated Press

    Chester Holcombe – US, WRONG NAME MAYBE

    Clark Kennard - Local, Malaya Broadcasting

    Frank Gervasi – US, Colliers Weekly

    Martha Gelhorn, US, Colliers Weekly

    Leland Stowe – US, Chicago Daily News

    I've found photos of them, and eliminated them, excepting Martha, who I didn't think I needed to look for, and Clark Kennard, who I probably do need to find. They are all in uniform, there is the question as to whether foreign, neutral, correspondents have to wear uniform.
     
  10. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Have you got this man?:
    From a report filed 3/2/1942 via:JAPANESE MASS FOR BLOW - Bombing Increased; Island Guns Reply - The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) - 3 Feb 1942

    His bio states:
    From: Ian Fitchett

    Note this has a poor quality B&W photo of:
    Possibly a diversion. Have you got this date?
    From: Disappearance Of Service Chiefs Cleared Up - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) - 15 Sep 1945

    An Australian journalist Rohan Rivett? He didn't escape being a POW. See: Rohan Rivett - Wikipedia

    Three more names. A British journalist, Eric Linklater, who appears within a long article / book. In the same book:
    From: https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/resources/bitter-fate-australians-malaya-singapore

    An American G. Weller was in Singapore and escaped:
    . Alas his article on Singapore, partly is not available online (even with JSTOR). See George Weller, in Military Affairs Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1944), which could be in a reference library in the USA?

    Not about journalists, the author is a RAF pilot who wounded was on the last plane out of Singapore. The book was published in 1944, so it probably will have nowt? 'Last flight from Singapore' by Arthur G. Donahue. See: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Flight-Singapore-Arthur-Donahue/dp/1594162018

    Another Australian correspondent in Singapore was Douglas Wilkie is mentioned once in a Google Books entry: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1070106/document/5519435.PDF
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2023
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  11. GeorgyB

    GeorgyB Active Member

    I'm wondering if the one on the right could be Alexander Berry Austin who was killed in Italy the following year. Something about the chin is quite distinctive. He was certainly sending dispatches about Singapore in Jan and Feb 1942 for the Daily Herald.
     

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  12. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    Attached Files:

  13. Fatboy Coxy

    Fatboy Coxy Junior Member

    OK, just done a little better, see Major General Gordon Bennett, General Officer Commanding AIF Malaya, briefing official war ...

    caption below says
    Major General Gordon Bennett, General Officer Commanding AIF Malaya, briefing official war correspondents on the first clash between Australians and Japanese. Standing from left to right: Captain B. Curtis, British Conducting Officer; W. Knox, Sydney "Mirror"; H. Standish, "Sydney Morning Herald"; I. Fitchett, Official A.I.F. Correspondent; H. Guard, "United Press"; H.A. Stokes, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Tom Fairhall, "Sydney Daily Telegraph".
     

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  14. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Steve,

    Apologies called away.

    There are a couple of B&W photos of Rohan Rivett on: Rohan Rivett None appear readily as a war correspondent.

    Oddly Eric Linklater's Wiki has nothing on him being in Singapore: Eric Linklater - Wikipedia

    Gilbert Mant:
    From: Gilbert Mant - Wikipedia Which has a B&W photo of him

    He did write a book too (1st pub. 1944 and last pub. 1991-92): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Singapore-Surrender-Gilbert-Mant/dp/0864174179 It is available in a few UK libraries via worldcat.org

    George Weller has a B&W photo on: Pacific Wrecks - George A. Weller Correspondent during World War II He has a book which includes Singapore: https://www.amazon.com/Wellers-War-Legendary-Correspondents-Continents-ebook/dp/B0027G6XJC

    There is a full face B&W photo after his escape from Java. See: George Weller Archive

    Finally Douglas Wilkie has a slim Wiki:
    From: Douglas Wilkie - Wikipedia No photo readily found.
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2023

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