Stephen Grenfell was a writer and

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

broadcaster. He presented BBC programmes including '' Sports Report''. He appeared as a castaway on the

programme '' Desert Island Discs'' on 10 August 1964. Grenfell was born in Pretoria, South Africa and spent his formative years at

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

. In 1932 he left the country, heading for the United Kingdom for work. He served in 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 ...

and was discharged in 1942 following injury. Later he joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

where he was a scriptwriter, working on Radio Newsreel and with Richard Dimbleby on Down Your Way. After resigning to work freelance he wrote and narrated radio documentaries as well as writing radio plays. Returning to South Africa in 1968 he became a freelance contributor to the South African Broadcasting Corporation with a specialism in talks on campaigns of the Second World War. He died on 7 March 1989 in Johannesburg and was survived by his three daughters.

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* Year of birth missing British sports broadcasters 1989 deaths BBC radio presenters People from Pretoria {{UK-radio-bio-stub