Charles Wheeler

Sir Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler was born on 26 March 1923 in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Winifred Agnes (née Rees) and Charles Cornelius-Wheeler. The family later resided in Hamburg, where his father worked as an agent for a shipping company. Wheeler received his education at Cranbrook School in Kent, England.

At age 17, Wheeler began his career in journalism as an errand boy at the Daily Sketch newspaper. During World War II, in 1942, he enlisted in the Royal Marines. He achieved the rank of captain and served with the 30 Assault Unit, a clandestine naval intelligence unit assembled by Ian Fleming. Wheeler participated in the Allied campaigns through Western Europe following the Normandy landings, serving as second-in-command to Patrick Dalzel-Job.

Following his military service, Wheeler left the Royal Marines in 1947 and joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He initially worked as a sub-editor in the Latin American division of the BBC World Service. His career as a foreign correspondent commenced around 1950 with a three-year posting in Berlin, facilitated by his fluency in German.

In 1956, Wheeler became a producer on the BBC’s current affairs series Panorama. During this period, he traveled to Hungary amid the Hungarian Uprising, capturing footage of the rebellion despite directives against doing so. His reporting included filming the Hungarian reactions to their revolt, and he and his then-wife, Catherine Freeman, successfully advocated for the story’s prominence on the program. Soon after, Russia re-entered Hungary and suppressed the uprising.

Wheeler declined an offer to become Panorama’s editor and was subsequently assigned to New Delhi, where he reported extensively on the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He returned to Berlin during the construction of the Berlin Wall and resided there for several years with his second wife, who was born in India. Between 1965 and 1973, Wheeler was based in Washington, D.C., covering significant events such as the American Civil Rights Movement and the Watergate scandal.

Later in his career, Wheeler served as the American correspondent for BBC’s Newsnight and was the inaugural presenter of BBC World’s discussion program, Dateline London. His work also included presenting documentary series on Radio 4 and contributing to the program From Our Own Correspondent. Up until a few weeks before his death, Wheeler was working on a project about the Dalai Lama.

The British Journalism Review established the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism following his death. The award recognizes excellence in broadcast journalism and is presented annually, with ceremonies hosted by the University of Westminster and the Wheeler family. The award ceremony was held in November 2020 online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent events have returned to an autumn schedule.

Wheeler was married twice. His first marriage was to BBC producer Catherine Freeman. In 1962, he married Dip Singh; together, they had two daughters. His daughters include Marina Wheeler, a barrister and former wife of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Shirin Wheeler, a former BBC Brussels correspondent.

In 2001, Wheeler was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He was knighted in the 2006 Birthday Honours for his services to broadcasting and journalism overseas. In June 2006, he identified a looted artwork—an Alessandro Allori painting of Eleonora of Toledo—that had been given as a wedding gift in 1952. Through the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, the painting was returned to the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, from which it had been missing since 1944.

Sir Charles Wheeler died of lung cancer at his residence in Warnham, Sussex, on 4 July 2008, at the age of 85.