George Ivan Smith
George Ivan Smith AO (11 July 1915 – 21 November 1995)[1] career spanned radio, war correspondent, movie director, diplomat, poet and author. He was born 11 July 1915 George Charles Ivan Smith in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. He is the first son of George Franklin Smith, a NSW prison governor and May Sullivan.
Personal
In 1935 he married
Ivan Smith is his full last name and not hyphenated, though often he is categorized under the last name Smith.[2]
Life and career
After education at Bathurst, New South Wales and then Goulburn High School where his father George Franklin Smith was prison governor at the Goulburn Gaol. After graduation Ivan Smith began work as a cub newspaper journalist for the Sydney Truth.
In 1937 he joined the
In 1939 became he talk's editor and a founding member of the new overseas short wave broadcasting service, "Australia Calling" (1939–1941) later named Radio Australia. In 1941 Ivan Smith was seconded to the BBC Overseas Service in London, England where he became director of the Pacific Service and organised overseas coverage of the Second Front. In 1945 he joined the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, where he worked as producer, editor and director of This Modern Age with Sergei Nolbano, a documentary series of films for J. Arthur Rank (1945–1947).
Ivan Smith joined the
After Trygve Lie's resignation in 1952, he acted frequently as spokesman for Dag Hammarskjöld, who had become secretary-general in 1953. He accompanied him on many missions, including his visit to the Middle East following the Suez Crisis on 1956–57. After which he co-ordinated salvage operations with American salvage companies of the sunken ships that blocked the Suez Canal.
He was also in charge of press liaison at the Four Powers' summit conference and foreign ministers' meeting in
Africa
In 1961, he was appointed United Nations Representative Katanga by Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Where he and his colleague Sir Brian Urquhart were kidnapped and beaten by Katangese paratroopers in the presence of US Senator Thomas Dodd. Senator Dodd was visiting the secessionist leader Moïse Tshombe and was his strongest supporter in the US Senate. A State Department employee, Lewis Hoffacker, attempted to stop the kidnapping and managed to get Ivan Smith away from his abductors by pulling him from a truck; Senator Dodd was being feted at a private home in Elizabethville at the time. Ivan Smith was able to then contact the commander of the UN Indian forces, Colonel S. S. Maitro and who effected Urquhart's release shortly afterwards, albeit in badly beaten condition.
Ivan Smith was then appointed the personal Representative of the Secretary General U Thant in East and Central Africa 1962–1966 as well as the Regional Director of United Nations Technical Assistance Programmes in Central Africa.
In 1964 he delivered the
Later years
In 1966 Ivan Smith returned from Africa to become a visiting Professor
In his retirement to Stroud, Gloucestershire he authored Ghosts of Kampala, a biography of Idi Amin and contributed numerous articles and letters to the press to include an obituary of Laurence Olivier. He was awarded the Officer the Order of Australia (AO) by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in London on Australia Day 1992 for Service to International Relations.
His collection of photographs, papers and letters were donated to the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. He was a very close friend of over the years with many individuals he met in the course of his career. Danny Kaye who would come to London with Jerry Lewis and appear in special UNICEF performances. He carried on constant communications with friends and associates such as Gareth Evans, Paul Keating and Rupert Murdoch and much earlier his mentor James Joyce these documents all reside at the Bodleian Library.
Publications
- Poetry London X 1944 Editions Poetry London, page 154. Anthology of The best War Time London Verse.
- Adventure and Discovery 1946 Jonathan Cape Miracle Drugs" page 155
- The Term of his Natural Life: Marcus Clarke, with an Introduction by George Ivan Smith, Collins. 1953.
- Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin first published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London)(1980.
References
- ^ "Ivan Smith, George Charles (1915–1995)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
- Bodleian Library collection of photos, papers and letters of George Ivan Smith
- George Ivan Smith, review "The Apparatus of Repression" and "Consciences of Convenience." Ghosts of Kampala (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980), 113-131, 161-174.
- The Official Opening of Australia Calling (later Radio Australia) on 20 December 1939.
- Interview with Sir Brian Urquhart, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
- This Modern Age Palestine George Ivan Smith and Sergei Nolbano
- New York Times review This Modern Age Palestine 1946
- Listing of This Modern Age documentaries
- Michael Pate's first contact with George Ivan Smith.
- Wollongong history and founding of radio station 2WL
- Radio Australia: Speech An independent voice for Australia in Asia and the Pacific
- Violence Robert Jackall Class of 1956 Professor of Sociology and Social Thought, Williams College HFG grantee
- Order of Australia recipients Archived 22 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Interview at the British Entertainment History Project