John Deane Potter, born in

Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

in Wales in October 1912, brought up in Liverpool, became a Fleet Street journalist, columnist and popular writer in the 1950s and 1960s. He died in

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 13,258 in 2021, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

on 19 March 1981, aged 68.

Life and times

John Deane Potter was one of

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

's most prodigious reporters in the post-war years, covering many of the major events including the trial of the Moors murders Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in 1966. He served in Burma and India during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a newspaper correspondent. He was one of the first Western journalists to report from Hiroshima after the Atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945, which is featured in his 1951 memoir, ''No Time for Breakfast''. He was a foreign correspondent for the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

'' in London when the newspaper was the biggest selling newspaper in the UK. Potter's non-fictional accounts of events were among the popular books of their time. His biography on

Isoroku Yamamoto was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He commanded the fleet from 1939 until his death in 1943, overseeing the start of the Pacific War in 1941 and J ...

, the Japanese admiral and mastermind of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

in December 1941, was one of the earliest contemporary publications. Potter's most successful books was "Admiral of the Pacific", first published in Britain. 13 editions were published between 1965 and 1972, while ''Fiasco'', had 23 editions between 1970 and 1974, in English and German. According to Worldcat, Potter published 37 works in 121 publications in five languages. He lived in Chelsea, London, and was twice married. His first wife, Eugenie Lee, a fellow journalist, appeared in several movies in Britain in the 1930s. She moved to the United States in 1940. Their daughter, Fenella, was born in the United States. His second wife was Eve Chapman, the fashion editor of 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 later agony aunt of the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

''. His great-grandfather was William

Abdullah Quilliam William Henry Quilliam (10 April 1856 – 23 April 1932), who changed his name to Abdullah Quilliam and later Henri Marcel Leon or Haroun Mustapha Leon, was a 19th-century British convert from Christianity to Islam, noted for founding England's ...

, who created England's first mosque and is an inspiration for the think-tank the

Quilliam Foundation Quilliam was a British think tank co-founded in 2008 by Maajid Nawaz that focused on counter-extremism, specifically against Islamism, which it argued represents a desire to impose a given interpretation of Islam on society. Founded as The Quill ...

and the Abdullah Quilliam Society. He had four children, his eldest son, Seamus Potter, became chief sub-editor of the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

''.

Published works

*''No Time for Breakfast'': Memoir (1951), *''The Crocodile Trembles'' (

Corgi Books Transworld is a British publishing house in Ealing, London that is a division of Penguin Random House, one of the world's largest mass media groups. It was established in 1950 as the British division of American company Bantam Books. It publi ...

, 1958), *''The Fatal Gallows Tree: An Account of the British Habit of Hanging'' (

Elek Books Paul Elek (1906–1976)"Paul Elek"
Obituaries, ''AJR Information'', Association of Jew ...

, London, 1965), *''Admiral of the Pacific: The Life of Yamamoto'' (1965), *''A Soldier Must Hang'': the biography of an Oriental General. *''The Monsters of the Moors: the full account of the Brady-Hindley case.'' (1966), *''Yamamoto: The Man Who Menaced America''. ( Viking Hardback), then (

Paperback Library Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

), *''The Art of Hanging'' (1969), *''Fiasco: The Break-out of the German Battleships'' ( Heinemann, 1970) (

Stein and Day Stein and Day, Inc. was an American publishing company founded by Sol Stein and his wife Patricia Day in 1962. Stein was both the publisher and the editor-in-chief. The firm was based in New York City, and was in business for 27 years, until cl ...

, 1971). Paperback version was renamed ''Breakout: The Ultra-Secret Plan that Led to the Greatest Sea and Air Battle of All Time'' ( Bantam War Book), *''Scotland Yard'' (1972), *''When the Guns of Navarone pointed at Britain'' (Extract from

TVTimes ''TV Times'' is a British television listings magazine. From 1955 until 1991, it was the only source of seven-day listings for ITV and, from 1982, Channel 4 (as well as S4C in Wales in an enclosed local supplement titled '' Sbec''). The magaz ...

book, 1976).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, John Deane 1912 births 1981 deaths British male journalists People from Anglesey