Richard John Spencer (born 3 June 1965) is a British journalist. He is the middle east editor for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and previously in the same post at ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''.

Background

Spencer was educated at

Sherborne School (God and My Right) , established = 705 by Aldhelm, re-founded by King Edward VI 1550 , closed = , type = Public school Independent, boarding school , religion = Church of England , president = , chair_label = Chairman of the governors , ...

and

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

. He has previously worked for six years as the newspaper's Beijing correspondent before moving to

Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

to take up his new post as one of their Middle East correspondents. Spencer moved to

Cairo, Egypt Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

in the wake of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

for ease of coverage. A former blogger for ''The Daily Telegraph'', he is known for his witty anecdotes and dry sense of humour. Spencer was the first Western journalist to reach

Yingxiu Yingxiu () is a town of southern Wenchuan County, in northwestern Sichuan Province. It is located at the southern end of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, and lies on the road to Jiuzhaigou Valley, Wolong and the Siguniang Mou ...

after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake where 80% of the town had been destroyed. Spencer left ''The Telegraph'' in August 2016. He joined ''

'' newspaper in 2016 and is based in

Beirut, Lebanon Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...

. He was nominated as Foreign Reporter of the Year in the National Press Awards for 2018. Spencer is married to writer and poet, Dr Helen Wing; the couple have three children together.

References

External links

Richard Spencer's blog

Richard Spencer
1965 births Living people British journalists The Daily Telegraph people {{UK-journalist-stub