Richard Joseph Hughes

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 ...

(5 March 19064 January 1984) was an Australian journalist who spent much of his life in the Far East as correspondent 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'' (fo ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' and the ''

Far Eastern Economic Review The ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (''FEER'') was an Asian business magazine published between 1946 and December 2009 in the English language. Based in Hong Kong, the news magazine published weekly until December 2004, when it converted to a m ...

''. He was the inspiration for the fictional character Dikko Henderson in

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., ...

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

novel '' You Only Live Twice'', and for "Old Craw" in

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

's ''

The Honourable Schoolboy ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' (1977) is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré. George Smiley must reconstruct an intelligence service in order to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from being dismantled by ...

''.

Early life

Hughes was born on 5 March 1906 at Prahran,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metrop ...

, Australia. He was the eldest child of Richard Hughes, a salesman, and his wife Katie, née McGlade.Prudence Torney-Parlicki
Hughes, Richard Joseph (1906–1984)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia ...

''. Retrieved 30 January 2021.

Career

His working life began at the

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, b ...

and he acquired his first journalistic experiences as a writer for the house magazine ''The Victorian Railways Magazine'' which is where he acquired the poetic style of writing for which he later became famous. He later worked within the

Frank Packer Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer (3 December 19061 May 1974), was an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. He was a patriarch of the Packer family. Early life Frank Packer was born in ...

organisation. Hughes was a war correspondent in the North African campaign of World War II and the Korean and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

wars. In 1940 he was based in Tokyo and warned that

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

was likely to enter the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

against the Allies.Richard Hughes: The Australian Media Hall of Fame
melbournepressclub.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021. After the Second World War he worked first from Japan and then from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta ...

where in addition to his journalistic work he was generally considered to be a British spy and by some to be a double agent. In 1956 he achieved a major international scoop when he located and interviewed the British spies and former diplomats

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...

and Donald Maclean in Moscow, who in 1951 had defected to the Soviet Union. Variously described as "flamboyant" and "larger than life",Peter Gregson
"Le Carré, Richard Hughes, and the 'Old Firm'"
thebaron.info. Retrieved 30 January 2021. Hughes spent forty years reporting from the Far East. He was seen as the "doyen of the Far East foreign press corps" and a stalwart of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club. Hughes authored several books, including ''Hong Kong, Borrowed Place, Borrowed Time'' (1968), which opens with his oft-quoted description of the Hong Kong of that period as "a rambunctious, free-booting colony, naked and unashamed, devoid of self pity, regrets or fear of the future".

Personal life

Hughes was married three times: firstly, to May Lillian Bennett in 1930, the marriage ending tragically with her suicide in 1933; secondly, to Adele, ''née'' Redapple, in 1945, which ended with her death in 1950; and thirdly, in 1973 to Oiying (Ann) Lee. He died in Hong Kong in January 1984 of kidney and liver diseases. His son from his first marriage, Richard (Dick) Hughes, was a journalist, jazz pianist and broadcaster.Malcolm Brown
"Dick Hughes, journalist, jazz pianist and broadcaster"
''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'', 23 April 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021. One of his granddaughters, Christa Hughes, is a singer, circus performer and comedian.

Books by Richard Hughes

* ''The Chinese Communes: A Background Book'' (London: The Bodley Head, 1960) *
Hong Kong, Borrowed Place, Borrowed Time: Hong Kong and Its Many Faces
' (London: Andre Deutsch, 1968; 2nd revised edition, Andre Deutsch, 1976) *
Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting from the Far East
' (London: Andre Deutsch, 1972; reprinted: Century Publishing, 1986)

References

External links

Hughes, Richard Joseph (1906–1984)
at ''

''
Richard Hughes: The Australian Media Hall of Fame
at

Melbourne Press Club The Melbourne Press Club, commonly referred to as MPC, is a not-for-profit association of journalists in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne Press Club provides awards in the State of Victoria for outstanding journalism, presenting th ...

Conversation with Richard Hughes
- recorded by

Tim Bowden Timothy Gibson Bowden (born 2 August 1937), is an Australian author, radio and television broadcaster and producer, and oral historian. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, and studied at the University of Tasmania, where he graduated with a Bache ...

Papers of Richard Hughes, ca. 1940-1983
at

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...