Godfrey Talbot
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Godfrey Talbot
| image=
| caption =
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|LVO}}
| birth_name = Godfrey Walker Talbot
| birth_date = {{birth date|1908|10|8|df=y}}
| birth_place = Walton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2000|9|2|1908|10|8|df=y}}
| death_place = London, England
| education = Leeds Grammar School
| occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|Radio Broadcaster}}
| title =
| family =
| spouse = {{marriage|Bess Owen|1933|1998|end=died}}
| children = 2
| relatives =
| nationality = British
| years_active= 1928 – 1969
1973
| credits =
| agent =
| URL =
}}
Godfrey Walker Talbot {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|LVO}} (8 October 1908 – 2 September 2000) was an English broadcast journalist. After an early career in print journalism, his time as a BBC Radio journalist included periods as a war reporter and royal correspondent.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/909649.stm|title=BBC veteran Godfrey Talbot dies|date=4 September 2000|work=BBC Online|accessdate=27 July 2014}} He was the first officially accredited court correspondent at Buckingham Palace.
Life
Talbot was born on 8 October 1908 at Walton, near Wakefield, Yorkshire,{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1354106/Godfrey-Talbot.html|title=Godfrey Talbot – Telegraph|date=5 September 2000|work=The Daily Telegraph|accessdate=27 July 2014}} and he was educated at Leeds Grammar School. He joined the Yorkshire Post at the age of 20. Four years later, he was editor of the Manchester City News, then worked at the Daily Dispatch, before joining the BBC in 1937.
File:HM King George VI Visits An Advanced Royal Air Force Airfield in Italy, 26 July 1944 TR2149.jpg
During World War II, having been sent to replace Richard Dimbleby,{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74633|title=Godfrey Talbot|last=Purser|first=Philip|date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74633 |accessdate=27 July 2014}} he reported on North African battles such as Al Alamein{{cite web |url=http://www.orbem.co.uk/repwar/wr_prep.htm |title=Planning for D-Day |first=Roger |last=Beckwith |website=Old BBC Radio Broadcasting Equipment and Memories |accessdate=9 July 2015 |quote=Godfrey Talbot arrived in Cairo in August 1942, replacing Richard Dimbleby. }} and Cassino, for which he was mentioned in despatches and, in 1946, made a military Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 29 August 1960.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/d8413855#p009y723 |title=Desert Island Discs – Castaway : Godfrey Talbot |work=BBC Online |publisher=BBC |accessdate=27 July 2014}} In the same year, he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order. He published two volumes of autobiography.
He died peacefully at home on 3 September 2000. He and his wife Bess Owen had two sons; she and one of them pre-deceased him.
Bibliography
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=Speaking from the desert; a record of the Eighth Army in Africa |year=1944 |publisher= |isbn=| oclc = 499983146}}
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=Ten Seconds From Now |year= |publisher= |isbn= |oclc = 153317112}} (autobiography)
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=Permission to Speak |year= |publisher= |isbn=| oclc = 463281404}} (autobiography)
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=The Country Life Book of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother |date=1978 |url=https://archive.org/details/countrylifebooko00talb_0 |url-access=registration |publisher= Country Life Books|isbn=978-0-600-38772-5}}
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=Our royal heritage |year= |publisher= |isbn=}}
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=Royalty annual |year= |publisher= |isbn=}}
- {{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Godfrey |author-mask=2 |title=The Country life book of the Royal Family |year=1981 |publisher= |isbn=}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|nm0847909}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140809062650/http://www.war-experience.org/history/keyaspects/talbot/default.asp Godfrey Talbot: The Voice of the Desert and the 8th Army] Oral history, at the Second World War Experience Centre
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Category:English male journalists
Category:English newspaper editors
Category:Members of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People educated at Leeds Grammar School
Category:People from the City of Wakefield
Category:Place of death missing
Category:War correspondents of World War II