Philip Pembroke Stephens

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Philip Pembroke Stephens
Philip Pembroke Stephens c.1925
Born1903
Died11/18 November 1937
Shanghai
EducationGresham's School, Norfolk; University of Cambridge
OccupationJournalist

Philip Pembroke Stephens (1903–1937) was a journalist, foreign correspondent for the

German Jews. In 1937, reporting from Shanghai on the Japanese invasion of China
, he was shot and killed by a Japanese bullet.

Biography

Early life

Born in 1903, (not 1894 as stated in John Simpson's Unreliable Sources), Stephens was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and, later, at the University of Cambridge.[1] He then joined Lincoln's Inn to train to be a barrister,[2] and in 1925 graduated in the second class in Roman-Dutch law.[3] After trying out this and other professions, he settled on journalism.[4]

Foreign Correspondent for the Daily Express

As a foreign correspondent for the Daily Express, he reported from Vienna and Paris. At the end of 1933, he was sent to Berlin to replace Sefton Delmer. Unlike Delmer, who had tried to get close to Adolf Hitler's close associates to get good stories, Stephens examined the effects of the Nazi regime on ordinary people, especially the Jewish population. His articles, criticizing Nazism and uncovering the harsh conditions of the Jews, became increasingly prominent in the Daily Express. The Nazi authorities arrested him twice, before finally expelling him from Germany in June 1934. From London, he continued to write critical articles on the Nazis, until the Daily Express lost its enthusiasm for this.[5]

Death

He subsequently joined the Daily Telegraph newspaper and was sent to report on the

Nanking Massacre. A friend of Stephens', O'Dowd Gallagher from the Daily Mail, wrote the story of Stephens' death and sent it to the Daily Express.[7][8] (On the other hand, the biographer of Edgar Snow says that O.D. Gallagher was himself working for the Daily Express and sent the story of Stephen's death to the Daily Telegraph.)[9]

Reporting Style

John Simpson, who researched Stephens for his book Unreliable Sources: How the Twentieth Century was Reported, calls Stephens a 'fearless correspondent', who 'stood out for his objective reporting'. He says his journalism was 'arresting, colourful', he 'was a genuine hero of 20th-century reporting', and that he 'refused to do his reporting from the safety of his office. He always preferred to go and see what was happening for himself. It earned him

Beaverbrook's highest praise, and a much-increased salary; and in the end it cost him his life.' He 'believed that it was his duty' to report on the plight of the Jews living under Nazi rule.[10]

References

  1. ^ The Cambridge University Calendar (University of Cambridge, 1922), p. 282
  2. ^ William Paley Baildon, Sir Ronald Roxburgh, The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn: 1914-1965 (London: Lincoln's Inn, 2001) p. 782
  3. ^ The Solicitors' Journal and Weekly Reporter, Volume 69 (1925), p. 667: “Roman-Dutch Law… Class 2. Stephens, Philip Pembroke, L.I.”
  4. BBC History Magazine
    Vol 11, no 6, June 2010, p.98
  5. BBC History Magazine
    Vol 11, no 6, June 2010, p. 98
  6. ^ Herbert R. Southworth, Guernica! Guernica! A study of journalism, diplomacy, propaganda and history, University of California Press, 1977, p.61 & p.212
  7. BBC History Magazine
     Vol 11, no 6, June 2010, p. 98
  8. ^ http://www.johngittings.com/id65.html
  9. ^ Edgar Snow: a biography by John Maxwell Hamilton, LSU Press, 2003, p.102
  10. BBC History Magazine
    Vol 11, no 6, June 2010, p. 98
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