Iain Overton (born 1973) is a British investigative journalist and the author of ''The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern World'' and ''Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of the Gun''.
He has been given the following awards for his journalism: a Peabody, a BAFTA Scotland, two Amnesty Awards, a Prix Circom, the Bar Council Best Journalist of the Year a One World Award. In addition, he has received nominations for three Royal Television Society Awards and a Golden Dagger Award.
Education
Overton read history at
Downing College, Cambridge
Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the old ...
. From 1997 to 1998, he took an MPhil in international relations at
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...
.
The Crucified Soldier
The Crucified Soldier
The Crucified Soldier refers to the widespread story of an Allied soldier serving in the Canadian Corps who may have been crucified with bayonets on a barn door or a tree, while fighting on the Western Front during World War I. Three witnesse ...
refers to the widespread story of an Allied soldier serving in the
Canadian Corps
The Canadian Corps was a World War I corps formed from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September 1915 after the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. The corps was expanded by the addition of the 3rd Canadian Division in December ...
who may have been
crucified
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
with
bayonet
A bayonet (from French ) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the end of the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar firearm, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon.Brayley, Martin, ''Bayonets: An Illustr ...
s on a barn door or a tree. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
the story was used by the Nazis as an example of British propaganda.
Iain Overton investigated the story of the Crucified Soldier as well as other myths of World War I in his MPhil dissertation and developed them into a television documentary, which was transmitted in 2002 as part of UK
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's ''
Secret History
A secret history (or shadow history) is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars. "Secret history" is also used to desc ...
'' series. Overton uncovered new historical evidence which identified the crucified soldier as Sergeant Harry Band of the Central Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Infantry, who was reported
missing in action
Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...
on 24 April 1915 near Ypres. Other soldiers in his unit wrote to Band's sister Elizabeth Petrie to express their condolences; a year later, one of them finally confirmed in a letter to her that her suspicions her brother had been "the crucified soldier" were true. Band's body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the
Menin Gate
The Menin Gate ( nl, Menenpoort), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves ...
memorial.
The evidence discovered by Overton included a typewritten note by a British nurse found in the Liddle Collection of war correspondence in
Leeds University
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, t ...
. The note related comments by a Lance Corporal C.M. Brown to his nurse, Miss Ursula Violet Chaloner, who he told of a Sergeant Harry Band who was "crucified after a battle of Ypres on one of the doors of a barn with five bayonets in him."
Broadcast journalism
In 2004 Overton won a BAFTA Scotland for the exposé Security Wars, a BBC film highlighting corruption in the security industry in Scotland. In 2005 he won a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for a BBC report on counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry.
In that year he was also a producer on the series that won, with reporter Simon Reeve, a One World Award for best popular feature for the series ''
Places That Don't Exist
''Holidays in the Danger Zone: Places That Don't Exist'' is a five-part travel documentary, part of the '' Holidays in the Danger Zone'' series, produced and broadcast by BBC This World. Written and presented by Simon Reeve, and produced by W ...
'' for the BBC.
In August 2005 he was appointed an Executive Producer at ITN.
In 2006 he was voted best Broadcast Journalist by the UK bar council for a news report on the proposed changes to the coroners' system, which would have made coroners' investigations into deaths abroad discretionary rather than compulsory.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
In September 2009, Overton was appointed the first managing editor of the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (typically abbreviated to TBIJ or "the Bureau") is a nonprofit news organisation based in London. It was founded in 2010 to pursue "public interest" investigations. However, on 2 November 2012, despite such lack of involvement Overton tweeted: 'If all goes well we've got a Newsnight out tonight about a very senior political figure who is a paedophile.'
The BBC TV programme ''
Newsnight
''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...
'' broadcast, shown on 2 November 2012 and reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's lead journalist Angus Stickler made an allegation against an unnamed politician, who was widely identified on the internet as the former Conservative Party Treasurer Lord McAlpine. Lord McAlpine issued a statement strongly denying the accusations. This allegation was subsequently admitted to be false.
Regarding Overton's role in the story, the Trustees of the BIJ concluded that "The Trustees consider that he (Overton) made a serious error of judgment, and risked the reputation of the Bureau, when he tweeted about the programme on the day of its transmission, both by exaggerating the Bureau's role in the story and by releasing information (that was itself wrong) prematurely."
In November 2012, eight members of parliament supported an
Early day motion
In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House ...
, tabled by Paul Flynn MP, praising the stories reported at the Bureau under Iain Overton's editorship.
Action on Armed Violence
From 2012, Iain Overton became the executive director of the London-based charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).
He is an expert member on the Forum for the Arms Trade.
''Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of the Gun''
''Gun, Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of the Gun'' was published by Canongate in 2015.
''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'' said it was "relentlessly engrossing". ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' said it was a "riveting book...enough to make your jaw drop... without judgement, refusing to descend into anti-gun rhetoric." ''
The Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' described it as "adventurous, ambitiously tracing the often devastating impact of guns around the world."
''Gun Baby Gun'' was shortlisted for the 2015 Crime Writer's Association Dagger Awards in the non-fiction category.
''The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern World''
Overton's second book - ''The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern World'' - came out in April 2019. In 2020, ''The Price of Paradise'' was nominated by the Airey Neave Trust for the Neave Book Prize 2019/20.
Christina Lamb
Christina Lamb OBE (born 15 May 1965) is a British journalist and author. She is the chief foreign correspondent of '' The Sunday Times''.
Lamb has won sixteen major awards including four British Press Awards and the European Prix Bayeux-Calv ...
reviewed it as "fascinating... a must-read" in the ''
Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
''.
Anthony Loyd
Anthony William Vivian Loyd (born 12 September 1966) is an English journalist and noted war correspondent, best known for his 1999 book ''My War Gone By, I Miss It So''. He gained prominence in February 2019 when he tracked down a British ISI ...
reviewed it as "outstanding... the author takes confident control over this huge, dense and dark subject... Engrossing" in the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...