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Wynford Vaughan-Thomas CBE (1908 - February 4, 1987), born Wynford Lewis John Thomas, was a Welsh journalist and broadcaster. In later life he took the name Vaughan-Thomas after his father.

He was born in Swansea, the second son of Dr. David Vaughan Thomas, Professor of Music, and Morfydd Lewis. He attended Swansea Grammar School where the English Master was the father of Dylan Thomas who was just entering the school at the time that Vaughan-Thomas was leaving for Oxford where he read Modern History and gained a second class degree.

In the mid 1930s he joined the BBC and in 1937 gave the Welsh commentary on the Coronation of King George VI. This was the precursor to several English commentaries on state occasons he was to give after the war. During the war he established his name and reputation as one of the BBC's most distinguished war correspondents of WWII. His most memorable report was from an RAF Lancaster during a raid over Berlin. Other notable reports were from Anzio, the Burgundy vineyards, Lord Haw Haw's broadcasting studio and the Belsen concentration camp. In 1953 he was one of a team of BBC commentators on the Coronation of the Queen. It was fitting that he commentated on the funeral of his fellow wartime BBC correspondent Richard Dimbleby who died in 1965.

In 1967, after leaving the BBC, he was one of the founders of Harlech TV (HTV), now ITV Wales, being appointed Director of Programmes. He wrote numerous books, many on Wales and the Welsh countryside and was a frequent TV broadcaster. Throughout his time with the BBC he adopted a BBC accent but his native Welsh accent returned in later life.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1974, and raised to Commander (CBE) in 1986.

He died in Fishguard in 1987.

Works

• Anzio (1961)
• Madly in All Directions (1967)
• Portrait of Gower (1976)
• Trust to Talk (1980)
• Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's Wales (1981)
• Princes of Wales (1982)
• The Countryside Companion (1983)
• Dalgety (1984)
• Wales: a History (1985)
• How I Liberated Burgundy: And Other Vinous Adventures (1985)

External links

• BBC Wales
• BBC Cymru

References

• Dictionary of National Biography 1986-1990, ISBN No. 019865212

Biography

• Trust to Talk, an autobiography.

• 1908 births
• 1987 deaths
• Alumni of the University of Oxford
• Welsh television presenters
• Welsh radio presenters
• People from Swansea
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire