Austen Steven Kark
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(20 October 1926 – 10 May 2002) was a managing director of the
BBC World Service.
He was one of three former holders of that post, along with
Gerard Mansell and
John Tusa
Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to ...
, to oppose the plans of
John Birt to merge the service into the BBC. After Birt became director general of the BBC in 1992, he had planned to end the service's independent status at
Bush House
Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, funded, a ...
in central London, and absorb it within the rest of the corporation.
Kark led a varied career before his tenure with the BBC. He was the son of a
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
army major who became a publisher. He attended
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite, all-boys, private school in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produce ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, the
Nautical College in
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, Pangbourne railway station, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a vill ...
, the
Royal Naval College, and
Magdalen College, Oxford. He became a Royal Navy
midshipman in 1944, serving two years with the East Indies fleet, aboard and
HMS ''London''.
In 1948 at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, Kark directed the first production of
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...
's ''
The Flies
''The Flies'' (french: Les Mouches) is a play by Jean-Paul Sartre, produced in 1943. It is an adaptation of the Electra myth, previously used by the Greek playwrights Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides.
The play recounts the story of Orestes an ...
''. He later joined his family's magazine business, Norman Kark Publications. One of its magazines was the glossy literary magazine
''Courier''. Kark married Margaret Schmahmann in 1949; they had two daughters. The couple divorced in 1954. Kark married novelist
Nina Bawden
Nina Bawden CBE, FRSL, JP (19 January 1925 – 22 August 2012) was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She is one of very few who have both se ...
the same year and became stepfather to her two sons. They had one daughter. He became a BBC reporter in 1954 and became head of the South European service at Bush House in 1964. His experiences in South Europe fuelled his interest in the region, particularly
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
; he would later write guidebooks about the country.
Kark moved to the East European and Russian service in 1972. The following year he became Editor of the World Service. He advised the last governor of
Rhodesia,
Lord Soames, on broadcasting the 1979 election in that country.
He became controller of engineering services in 1974. In 1980, he chaired the
Harare
Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...
government report on radio and television in
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
under
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...
. In 1981 he began a two-year tenure as Deputy Managing Director of External Broadcasting. He was promoted to Managing Director in 1984, exactly 30 years after he joined the BBC.
Kark was the man-in-the-middle of another great BBC controversy – the launching of the
BBC World
BBC World News is an International broadcasting, international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a State-owned enterprise, public corporation of the Governme ...
television service to complement its radio counterpart. The idea was first mooted by Kark's predecessor,
Douglas Muggeridge
Douglas Muggeridge (1928 – 26 February 1985)''BBC annual report and handbook 1986'', 1985, , p. 160-1 was the controller of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 from February 1969 until 1976.Martin, Chad Andrew (2003) ''Paradise now: youth politics an ...
– the nephew of the broadcaster
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, in Essex). In ...
. Kark retired in 1986.
Kark was a man of broad interests, especially involving southern Europe and the
Commonwealth. He became a trustee of the
Commonwealth Journalists Association in 1993. In retirement, he wrote ''Attic in Greece'' (1994), and ''The Forwarding Agent'' (1999), a spy thriller set in the Middle East that was praised by the crime writer
PD James, an old friend. Most of his book was written at his home in
Nauplion
Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the ...
, a small town in the
Peloponnese, where he and his wife Bawden spent much of their time. In London, the couple lived in
Islington, in a house backing on to the
Regent's Canal
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in e ...
. His hobbies included
real tennis, travelling and studying mosaics. He was a member of the
Oriental Club and
MCC, and was appointed
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1987.
Austen Kark died at the age of 75 in the
Potters Bar rail crash
There have been four railway accidents at Potters Bar (England). Those in 1898 and 1946 were signals passed at danger. The accident in 2002 led to substantial public debate and a national change in policy relating to maintenance of infrastru ...
, in which his wife was severely injured.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kark, Austen Steven
1926 births
2002 deaths
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
BBC people
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Railway accident deaths in England
British broadcasters
Royal Navy officers of World War II
20th-century British novelists