Richard West (18 July 1930 – 25 April 2015) was a British journalist and author best known for his reporting of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He is described by

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson (born 1962) is an English journalist, editor and author. He is an associate editor of ''The Spectator''. Previously he worked as editor-in-chief of the ''Catholic Herald'' and for ''The Daily Telegraph'' where he was religious a ...

as "one of the finest foreign correspondents of the 20th century", with a career that covered the span of the Cold War in most of its theatres.

Life and career

Born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, West attended Marlborough College before his

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

spell in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

awakened a lifelong interest in Yugoslavia. Starting off his journalistic career at the '' Manchester Guardian'', West became a foreign correspondent in Yugoslavia, Africa, Central America and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. Described by

Neal Ascherson Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer. He has been described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and eastern Europe". Ascherson is the author of several books on the history ...

as the "paragon of the independent journalist for his generation", he would spend much of the next two decades in Vietnam, Africa and eastern Europe, where he was codenamned Agent Friday by Communist Poland's secret police. Among his books are ''The Making of the Prime Minister'' (with Anthony Howard), ''An English Journey'' (1981) and ''Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia'' (1995). Along with

Patrick Marnham Patrick Marnham is an English writer, journalist and biographer. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Literature in 1988. He is primarily known for his travel writing and for his biographies, where he has covered subjects as diverse as D ...

and

Auberon Waugh Auberon Alexander Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was an English journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron". After a traditional classical education at Downsid ...

, West was one of three signatories to a letter to ''The Times'' that called for a British monument to honour those repatriated as a result of the

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

; it was eventually erected in 1986.

Personal life and death

He was the grandson of the classics scholar

Walter Leaf Sir Walter Leaf (26 November 1852, Upper Norwood – 8 March 1927, Torquay) was an English banker, classical scholar and psychical researcher. He published a benchmark edition of Homer's Iliad and was a director of Westminster Bank for many ye ...

and the great-grandson of poet John Addington Symonds, and was married to the Irish journalist

Mary Kenny Mary Kenny (born 4 April 1944) is an Irish journalist, broadcaster and playwright. A founding member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, she was one of the country's first and foremost feminists, often contributes columns to the ''Irish In ...

. His sons,

Patrick West Patrick West (born 1974, London) is a British freelance writer and political commentator. Early life He is the son of British journalist Richard West and Irish journalist Mary Kenny, the brother of the journalist Ed West, and cousin of actors ...

and Ed West, are both journalists, and Richard was the first cousin of the actor

Timothy West Timothy Lancaster West, CBE (born 20 October 1934) is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both ''Coronation Street'' (as Eric Babbage) and ''EastEnders'' (as Stan Carte ...

. West died in Deal,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, where he had lived since 1998, on 25 April 2015, aged 84.

Bibliography

Books

* ''P.R. the Fifth Estate'' (1963) * ''The Making of the Prime Minister'' (1965) (with Anthony Howard) * ''The White Tribes of Africa'' (1965) * ''The Gringo in Latin America'' (1967) * ''Sketches from Vietnam'' (1968) * ''Back to Africa'' (1970) * ''Brazza of the Congo'' (1972) * ''River of Tears'' (1972) * ''Victory in Vietnam'' (1974) * ''The White Tribes Revisited'' (1978) * ''An English Journey'' (1981) * ''The Diamonds and the Necklace: A South African Journey'' (1989) * ''Hurricane in Nicaragua'' (1989) * ''Thailand: The Last Domino'' (1991) * ''Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia'' (1994) * ''War and Peace in Vietnam'' (1995) * ''The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Daniel Defoe'' (1998) * ''Chaucer: The Life and Times of the First English Poet'' (2002)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Richard 1930 births 2015 deaths British male journalists British war correspondents Foreign correspondents in Africa People educated at Marlborough College The Guardian journalists