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Ian Goodhope Colvin (22 November 1912 - 20 April 1975) was a British journalist and author. Born in Hampstead, London he was the third son of Ian Duncan Colvin (q.v.) and Sophie Robson. During the period 1936 - 1939 Colvin was based in Berlin, returning there after conclusion of World War II before subsequently pursuing his career from Fleet Street with numerous foreign postings in Africa and the Middle East.

Early life

Colvin's childhood home moved from Hampstead to Wimbledon, London. He was educated at Forres preparatory school in Dorset, where he was a classmate of Michael Foot (q.v.) and then at Bradfield College public school.

After a period in 1932 as a Fleet Street cub reporter on his father's newspaper the Morning Post, he joined Reuters in London, Paris (where he also attended the Sorbonne), Munich and Berlin. Colvin soon realised that it would be in Germany that the vital action was likely to take place over the following years. He steeped himself deeply in German language and culture, studying first at the University of Munich before moving to Berlin.

Career

In Berlin Colvin obtained appointment as one of the two correspondents maintained by the News Chronicle, and set about inserting himself in German society, but never befriending any Nazi. Winston Churchill later commented in The Gathering Storm "He plunged very deeply into German politics and established contacts of a most secret nature" with German generals and others who foresaw in Hitler the ruin of their native land.

In 1938, Colvin was instrumental in arranging a clandestine visit to Britain by Baron von Kleist-Schmenzin. The visit was intended to seek a signal that support would be forthcoming in the event that Kleist's associates were to mount a coup. Kleist-Schmenzin’s endeavours interested Churchill, but met only a lukewarm reception from Government quarters. Preparations continued nevertheless for the coup, but were abandoned when Chamberlain made his visit of appeasement in late September 1938. Colvin continued to meet members of the German resistance. In 1939, Lord Halifax, then British Foreign Secretary, took him to see the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and this meeting was instrumental in the issue of the Polish Guarantee.

The other News Chronicle correspondent, Harrison, was expelled in 1939, and Colvin made a show of leaving in solidarity, but actually returned the same day to continue his work. With the approach of war, Colvin returned to England, and on 29 August married Moira Muntz, who had been working till then in the Consulate Passport Office in Berlin under Frank Foley.

Colvin continued to push his ideas for contact with the German resistance, but in the confused atmosphere of the early months of the war this was treated with some suspicion, so he took a commission in the Royal Marines and served at Combined Operations Headquarters.

At the end of World War II, Colvin returned to Germany, resident in Berlin until August 1948 then based in Fleet Street, working for Kemsley newspapers and from 1953 to 1955 for the Sunday Express. At the same time he worked on a number of books concerned with personalities and events of the recent conflict. Most notable from the historical perspective at the time was his study of Admiral Canaris, the German Chief of Intelligence.

The 1950’s saw Colvin’s attention turn to Africa and the Middle East. In 1955 he joined the Daily Telegraph and from 1957 was based in South Africa to cover much of Africa. During this period he gained a close and hazardous experience of the early years of independence of the ex-Belgian Congo. His reporting of the Katangese secession led later to a biography of Moïse Tshombe.

Though he returned to London in 1959, Colvin was soon posted to Beirut, Lebanon to cover the Middle East until he became a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph in 1963. This new appointment did not prevent him from taking frequent, and often arduous, missions to Africa and the Middle East. He took a particularly active role in the long running Rhodesian saga.

Colvin's journalistic career was accompanied by that of author. A first outlet for early poetic aspirations was the 1938 verse translation into english of the Minnesinger poet Walter von der Vogelweide. World War II then provided material for a number of books, notably “Chief of Intelligence” the life of Admiral Canaris, “The Unknown Courier” a misinformation ruse using messages on a corpse to deceive the enemy as to the target of allied landing in 1943, and “Flight 777” which recounted the story leading to the death of Leslie Howard the actor. His attention returned later to the events surrounding WWII, writing in a more historical vein “Vansittart in Office”, a study of British foreign policy and the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office, and the “Chamberlain Cabinet”, which drew on the then recently released public record documents. He had further projects exploring these themes, which however were not completed before his premature death at the age of 62.

Personal life

Colvin was married to Moira Muntz, of Tansor in Northamptonshire, whom he met in Berlin where she was working as one of "Foley's Follies" in the British Consulate. They had four children, Diana, Clare, Arabella (died in 1946) and Andrew.

Outside his professional life Colvin was a keen fly-fisher, taking what opportunities he could for some days casting on the waters away from the stress of the news and world crises. He also bought and converted as a residence an oast house in Buxted, Sussex. This was to be the home where he would carry on writing after retirement from active journalism, an ambition that was cut short by his death on 20 April 1975.

Bibliography

• I Saw The World, Poems of Walther von der Vogelweide, translated and set into verse, Arnold 1938;
• Domesday Village, Falcon Press, 1948;
• Admiral Canaris, Chief of Intelligence, London, Gollancz, 1951;
• H. Speidel, We Defended Normandy, translated by IGC, 1951;
• The Unknown Courier, London, Kimber, 1953, with introduction by Field-Marshal Kesselring, re-issued Faber Finds 2010, ISBN978-0-571-27134-4;
• The Secret Front by W. Hoetl, translated and edited with introduction by IGC, Praeger NY, 1954;
• Colonel Henri's Story, with Hugo Bleicher, London, Kimber, 1954;
• Flight 777, London, 1957, revised edition edited by A & C Colvin, London, Pen& Sword, 2013, ISBN978-1-78159-016-4;
• Vansittart in Office, London, Gollancz, 1965;
• The Rise and Fall of Moise Tshombe, London, Leslie Frewin, 1968;
• The Chamberlain Cabinet, London, Victor Gollancz, 1971
• Canaris by André Brissaud, trans. with extensive introduction by IGC, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1973.

External links

• Data related to Ian Goodhope Colvin at Wikidata