Harry Arnold (28 March 1941 – 8 November 2014) was a war correspondent and

royal correspondent Royal correspondent is the designation often assigned to a journalist who specialises in reporting on the goings on of royalty. Examples from the United Kingdom include Jennie Bond and Nicholas Witchell, both of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC ...

who worked for the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' and '' The Sun''. He was born in

Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The town developed around Chatham ...

. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by an uncle and aunt. He won a scholarship to the

Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School ("Beneath the shadow of thy wings") , established= , closed= , type=Grammar School;Academy (English school), Academy , religious_affiliation= , president= , head_label= , head=Eliot Hodges , r_head_label= , r_head= , chair_label=, chair= , founder ...

. His first job was with the ''Chatham Observer''. By age 21 he was working for the

Extel The Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. (also known as Extel) was created in March 1872 specifically to distribute financial and business information from the London Stock Exchange and other commercial markets direct to subscribers. The company establishe ...

(Exchange Telegraph) news agency. He joined ''The Sun'' soon after its launch in 1964. In 1972 he went to Derry to cover the

Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...

shootings. In 1976 he became ''The Sun''s royal correspondent. He also covered the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...

—a human crush at a football stadium—leading to ''The Sun''s infamous headline "The Truth". Arnold said in 2012 that he was "aghast" when he saw that

Kelvin Mackenzie Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of '' The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication was established as Britain's largest circulation newspaper. Aft ...

had attached the headline to his writing and that his piece was written "in a fair and balanced way". Arnold's article, published four days after the disaster, repeated false police claims that Liverpool fans had pickpocketed victims of the crush and urinated on officials. He moved to the ''Daily Mirror'' in 1990, where he covered the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

and the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...

. He was married to Mary and had four children. He died in 2014 aged 73, from liver cancer.

References

External links

Interview with Arnold
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Harry 20th-century British journalists People educated at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School 1941 births 2014 deaths