Sir Charles Wheeler

Jul 8 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

BENEATH the professorial eccentricity of his eyebrows, there was the grey stare of a man who had observed the ways of fools in many lands and had very little reason to suppose that the future held anything better.

Although quite small, he was wiry with a determined stance, leaving only his carefully swept bouffant to suggest in him the vanity that he deplored in others.

He belonged to the charmed generation of globe-trotting TV and radio reporters, which included Malcolm Muggeridge, James Cameron and Richard Dimbleby, who found in journalism an outlet for maverick talents untamed by academe.

It was this spirit, coupled with his immense experience, which made Charles Wheeler a man you could trust. He was a truth-teller.

Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler was born in Bremen, Germany, where his father worked for a shipping company. Despite being sent to school in England, Wheeler, whose father had served in the Great War, witnessed the rise of Nazism.

He decided on a career in newspaper journalism.

In common with many of his generation, he had a spell on the old Daily Sketch in Fleet Street, joining at 17 as a copy-boy, who found that his duties involved fetching quarter-bottles of whisky for seasoned sub-editors.

His service on the Sketch was broken by World War II. Wheeler joined the Royal Marines, being mentioned in dispatches and rising to the rank of captain. He saw fierce fighting in Europe and, as a fluent German speaker, helped smuggle U-boat commanders out of Berlin, so that their expertise could be used by the West rather than the USSR.

After the war, he joined the BBC, starting the career which would later have him acclaimed as Britain’s best screen journalist. His terse style was heard in dispatches from Berlin, during the East German uprising. In 1956, he joined the staff of Panorama as a producer.

But he was at his finest on screen – covering great events from Asia, and, most significantly Washington, leading to the Watergate scandal.

He then had spells on Newsnight as anchorman and later as a roving reporter. He loathed the notion of celebrity journalism, but had to accept that TV had made him a household name, particularly for his knowledge of foreign affairs.

Wheeler, married twice with two children, was knighted in 2006.

Charles Wheeler, reporter; born March 26, 1923, died July 4, 2008.