Clare Hollingworth, War Correspondent Who Broke News Of World War II, Dies Aged 105
Hollingworth survived wars, bombings, and wrote five books detailing her extraordinary career. She died in Hong Kong on January 10.
Clare Hollingworth lived an extraordinary life. She reported throughout the world in a career that spanned decades. She was a female war correspondent when such journalists were rare, and she passed away today, per The Guardian and a confirmation on the Facebook page Celebrate Clare Hollingworth.
In the summer of 1939, she had only been working as a journalist for a week when she traveled to Poland. The Daily Telegraph had sent the rookie reporter to Europe in order to report on the growing tensions there. Hollingworth persuaded a British Consul to lend her a car, which she then took on a fact-finding mission through the countryside. The Polish-German border was closed to all but diplomatic vehicles.
After passing into Germany, the 26-year-old reporter saw an unusual sight: the land beyond the road was obscured by fabric panels. Clearly, something important was just beyond those screens.
As she was beginning to return to Poland, a gust of wind blew aside a loose panel. Hollingworth finally saw what was hidden beyond: a valley full of the German army, including hundreds of tanks, guns, and a massive amount of troops, all poised to enter Poland. This invasion would mark the beginning of World War II.
It was the first time the Foreign Office or consul-general had heard of such an action. In fact, the British Embassy in Warsaw was so doubtful of her account that Hollingworth had to hold her phone out of her Polish hotel room so that officials could hear the sounds of the German army there, according to The Guardian.
The extraordinary report would follow her throughout her long and illustrious career. Still, Hollingworth did not attribute the story to any particular sleuthing on her part. “I broke the story when I was very, very young,” she said in a Telegraph interview from 2009. “I went there to look after the refugees, the blind, the deaf and the dumb. While I was there, the war suddenly came into being.”
Before her reporting work, Hollingworth had worked to save thousands of lives by arranging for refugees to get British visas. After her career-defining moment in 1939, she continued on her path as a brave and relentless journalist. She reported on conflicts throughout the world, including those in Palestine, Vietnam, and Algeria. She was also the first reporter to interview Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the final Shah of Iran.
Hollingworth, with second husband Geoffrey Hoare, survived the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, where they had been staying. The bombing killed 91 people. Though Hollingworth survived, she lost nearly everything. She later told The Guardian that “my mother changed her will because she said she wasn’t going to leave her money to a daughter who was irresponsible enough to stay in a hotel that was blown up.”
In the 1980s, Hollingworth moved to Hong Kong. She had officially retired from The Daily Telegraph after years of failing eyesight and increasing memory problems. However, she would still call in regularly to the London newsdesk. She became a regular fixture at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong, where she celebrated her 105th birthday this past October.
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Hollingworth left behind an extraordinary legacy of journalism. While she was often in the right place at the right time, Hollingworth followed up such circumstance with dogged, fearless reporting. Moreover, she took great joy in her work. “I enjoy action,” she told the BBC in 1999. “I enjoy being in a plane that’s bombing something, or being on the ground in the desert when they’re advancing.”
Our thoughts are with her family and friends.