Denis Warner

{{Short description|Australian journalist (1917–2012)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Denis Warner

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|CMG|OBE}}

| image = Denis Warner (205000857).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Warner as a war correspondent in 1944

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|12|12|df=yes}}

| birth_place = New Norfolk, Tasmania, Australia

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|07|12|1917|12|12|df=yes}}

| death_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

| education =

| nationality = Australian

| occupation = Journalist

| years_active =

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}}

Denis Ashton Warner {{post-nominals|country=AUS|CMG|OBE}} (12 December 1917 – 12 July 2012) was an Australian journalist, war correspondent and historian.{{cite web|url= https://www.smh.com.au/national/war-writer-shaped-political-opinion-20120727-22ze5.html |title= War writer shaped political opinion |first= Tony |last= Walker |language= en |work= The Sydney Morning Herald |date= July 28, 2012 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725083637/https://www.smh.com.au/national/war-writer-shaped-political-opinion-20120727-22ze5.html |url-status=dead}}

Warner was born in New Norfolk in Tasmania's Derwent Valley. He attended The Hutchins School, where he was school captain, before embarking on a career in journalism. He began working for the Mercury as a copy boy in the late 1930s before being shifted to Melbourne to work for the Herald.{{cite journal|last=McAdam|first=Anthony|title=Denis Warner, 1917–2012|journal=Quadrant|volume=LVI|number=11|date=November 2012|url=https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/uncategorized/denis-warner-1917-2012/ |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725082444/https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2012/11/denis-warner-1917-2012/ |url-status=dead}} After his return from war service in the Middle East (1941–43), he came to the attention of Sir Keith Murdoch, who dispatched him to Asia with the directive to "tell us how it is". On 4 May 1945, Warner was on board the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable near the island of Okinawa when it was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft, the suicide plane striking the deck only 30 ft from where he stood.{{cite news|last=Warner|first=Denis|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/09/opinion/IHT-steel-decks-spared-lives-and-so-did-razor-blades.html |title=Steel Decks Spared Lives, And So Did Razor Blades|work=The New York Times|date=May 9, 1995 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= September 7, 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230907193510/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/09/opinion/IHT-steel-decks-spared-lives-and-so-did-razor-blades.html |url-status=dead}} Later that year he married Herald reporter Peggy Hick. Following the war's end, he worked for Reuters and the Australian Associated Press as head of the Tokyo bureau, from whence he reported on Japan's post-war experience and interviewed General Douglas MacArthur. In 1949, Warner was instrumental in publicising the case of Lorenzo Gamboa, a Filipino man targeted by the White Australia policy, after a chance encounter in a Tokyo post office.{{cite book|first=Rodney|last=Sullivan|chapter='It Had to Happen': the Gamboas and Australian-Philippine interaction|title=Discovering Australasia: Essays on Philippine-Australian Interactions|editor-first1=Reynaldo C.|editor-last1=Ileto | editor-first2=Rodney| editor-last2 = Sullivan|year=1993|location=Townsville|publisher=James Cook University|isbn= 978-0-86443-461-6|oclc=30351488|pages=110–11}}

In 1949 he was appointed Far Eastern Correspondent for the Herald and the London Daily Telegraph, becoming a freelancer in 1955. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1956 and an Associate Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1957.{{cite web|url=http://ada.asn.au/about-us/notices/vale-denis-warner,-cmg,-obe,-1918-2012.html|title=Vale Denis Warner, CMG, OBE, 1917–2012|publisher=Australia Defence Association|accessdate=2013-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130411120931/http://ada.asn.au/about-us/notices/vale-denis-warner,-cmg,-obe,-1918-2012.html|archive-date=11 April 2013|url-status=dead}} He wrote for a number of international news magazines, including the Reporter, Look and the Atlantic. He was a correspondent for the Telegraph on the Korean War, which he described as a "tragic accident". It was during Korea that he developed a bitter rivalry with Wilfred Burchett, whom he considered a traitor for his support of the Chinese.{{cite web|url= https://apjjf.org/jamie-miller/2912/article |title= The Forgotten History War: Wilfred Burchett, Australia And The Cold War In The Asia Pacific |first= Jamie |last= Miller |language= en |work= The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date= September 1, 2008 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725085749/https://apjjf.org/jamie-miller/2912/article |url-status=dead}}

Warner was a significant correspondent from the Vietnam War, where he was critical of the American conduct of a war he nevertheless supported.{{cite web|url= https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/denis-warner |title= Denis Warner |language= en |work= Australian Media Hall of Fame |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725082411/https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/denis-warner |url-status=dead}} He continued to write on Asian affairs until 1983, also serving as a member of the Victorian State Advisory Committee of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1979 to 1981. From 1981 to 1995 he was editor of the Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter. His hawkish foreign policy views distinguished him from many of his more liberal contemporaries.{{cite web|url= https://www.smh.com.au/national/keen-influential-observer-of-asia-in-war-and-peace-20120723-22k9x.html |title= Keen, influential observer of Asia in war and peace |first= Tony |last=Walker |language= en |work= The Sydney Morning Herald |date= July 24, 2012 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725085344/https://www.smh.com.au/national/keen-influential-observer-of-asia-in-war-and-peace-20120723-22k9x.html |url-status=dead}}

Warner was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1971 and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1982. He was a foundation patron of the Australia Defence Association in 1981, remaining involved with the organisation until his death. He continued writing into his later life, until ill health and his wife's death in 2010 led to a decline. Warner died in Melbourne in 2012.{{cite web|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9401822/Denis-Warner.html |title= Denis Warner |language= en |work= The Daily Telegraph |date= July 15, 2012 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= February 11, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210211033100/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9401822/Denis-Warner.html |url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url= https://www.smh.com.au/national/journalist-denis-warner-dies-20120713-220nj.html |title= Journalist Denis Warner dies |first= Ross |last= Peake |language= en |work= The Sydney Morning Herald |date= July 13, 2012 |access-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-date= July 25, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240725082419/https://www.smh.com.au/national/journalist-denis-warner-dies-20120713-220nj.html |url-status=dead}}