David Kenneth Harris,

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 ...

(11 November 1919 – 24 June 2005) was a British journalist who worked for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''. He was born in South Wales and educated at Trowbridge grammar school,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

. His undergraduate life was interrupted by the

Second World War 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, where he served in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. In 1947 he took part in the first postwar Oxford Union debating tour of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(with Edward Boyle and

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

) and wrote a book about the experience, ''Travelling Tongues'' (1949). He graduated in 1948.''The Times'' (5 July 2005), p. 53. Harris became a journalist for the '' Sheffield Telegraph'' in 1948 before joining ''

'' in 1950. He was the paper's Washington correspondent until 1953, when he became its labour correspondent. This role brought him into contact with

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

and he later became Attlee's authorised biographer. He was also the ghost writer for the Durham miners' leader Sam Watson which appeared in ''The Observer''. Harris also became ''The Observer''s chief interviewer, questioning Alexei Kosygin,

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...

and

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

. His interview with Kosygin, shortly after he became Soviet Prime Minister, was broadcast on both BBC and ITV.'Lives Remembered', ''The Times'' (14 July 2005), p. 62. Harris's 1970 interview with the Duke of Windsor and Duchess of Windsor was the last before the Duke's death in 1972.

Works

*''Travelling Tongues'' (1948). *''Conversations'' (1967). *''Talking To'' (1971). *''Attlee'' (1982). *''Personally Speaking'' (1987). Interviews with

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 t ...

. *''The Wildcatter: A Portrait of Robert O. Anderson'' (1987). *''Thatcher'' (1988). *''The Queen'' (1994).

Notes

1919 births 2005 deaths British male journalists Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford The Observer people British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery personnel Welsh military personnel {{UK-journalist-stub