Harry Arnold (28 March 1941 – 8 November 2014) was a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

and

royal correspondent Royal correspondent is the designation often assigned to a journalist who specialises in reporting on matters concerning royalty. Examples from the United Kingdom include Jennie Bond and Nicholas Witchell, both of the BBC The British Broa ...

who worked for the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' and ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

''. He was born in

Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596. Th ...

. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by an uncle and aunt. He won a scholarship to the Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School. His first job was with the ''Chatham Observer''. By age 21 he was working for the

Extel The Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. (also known as Extel) was created in March 1872 specifically to distribute financial and business information from the London Stock Exchange and other commercial markets direct to subscribers. The company establish ...

(Exchange Telegraph) news agency. He joined ''The Sun'' soon after its launch in 1964. In 1972 he went to Derry to cover the Bloody Sunday shootings. In 1976 he became ''The Sun''s royal correspondent. He also covered the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

—a human crush at a football stadium—leading to ''The Sun''s infamous headline "The Truth". Arnold said in 2012 that he was "aghast" when he saw that

Kelvin Mackenzie Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English News media, media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication had been established as Br ...

had attached the headline to his writing and that his piece was written "in a fair and balanced way". Arnold's article, published four days after the disaster, repeated false police claims that Liverpool fans had pickpocketed victims of the crush and urinated on officials. He moved to the ''Daily Mirror'' in 1990, where he covered the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

and the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...

. He was married to Mary and had four children. He died in 2014 aged 73, from liver cancer.

References

External links

Interview with Arnold
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Harry 20th-century British journalists People educated at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School 1941 births 2014 deaths