Charles Wheeler: 'The reporters' reporter'

Veteran journalist Sir Charles Wheeler  -  one of the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondents  -  has died from lung cancer at the age of 85.

Described as 'the reporters' reporter', Wheeler was known for his integrity, authority, humanity and courage.

His 60-year-career included postings as a correspondent in Berlin, Delhi and Washington as well as regular slots on BBC TV's Newsnight and Panorama.

Wheeler, the father-in-law of London mayor Boris Johnson, was relentless in his search for the truth, and wasn't afraid to tell it as it was. Sometimes with rather alarming results.

When during one broadcast, he referred to Ceylon's new prime minister as 'an inexperienced eccentric at the head of a government of mediocrities', an unimpressed Ceylon threatened to leave the Commonwealth and it took a hasty intervention by the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson to smooth things out.

Equally, in his reports from Washington, he didn't conceal his disdain for President Ronald Reagan's lack of reading, video briefings and reliance on his 'instincts'.

And there were red faces when, after a long day covering a royal tour, he was overhead in a pub saying: 'I wish that bloody woman would go home.'

Wheeler was born in March 1923 in the German city of Bremen and educated at Cranbrook School in Kent.

Inspired by a film he'd seen as a teenager, he began his journalistic career aged 17, running errands at the now defunct Daily Sketch newspaper.

In 1942, he joined the Royal Marines as part of a team led by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, which gathered technical intelligence ahead of the Allied invasion of Europe.

Wheeler took part in the D-Day landings.  He joined the BBC as a subeditor in 1947 and had worked for the Corporation ever since.

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Razor-sharp mind: Sir Charles joined the BBC in 1947 having served with the Marines in World War II

He made his name covering the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet after the Chinese invaded in 1959.

Wheeler cemented his reputation during his stint in Washington DC, covering the race riots, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the shooting of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Beatlemania, growing opposition to the war in Vietnam and Watergate.

He had a razor-sharp mind and although softly spoken he wasn't always easy to work with.

One former colleague described him as ' cantankerous, Luddite and Napoleonic'.

The first he admitted to. He blamed the pressure of working in front of the camera, which he found uncomfortable  -  he was much happier gathering the story.

Former Newsnight colleague Gavin Esler yesterday described him as 'a very easy person to be a friend of, really encouraging and an inspiration for all young journalists  -  his reports from America were the reason I became a journalist'.

It was during his four-year posting to India that Wheeler met his wife Dip Singh.

They married in 1962 and had two daughters  -  Shirin, who followed him into the BBC and works as European politics correspondent in Brussels, and Marina, a barrister, who is married to Boris Johnson.

In recent years, he criticised modern broadcasting for 'dumbing down'.  He claimed the BBC had 'lost its way with news' and had become obsessed with the cult of personality.

He remained active in his later years as a presenter of documentary series on Radio 4 and was back on the Normandy beaches in 2004 reporting on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landing.

He was knighted in 2006 for services to journalism and received two BAFTAs and several Royal Television Society awards  -  including one for a documentary on the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence.