Sandy Gall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Short description Template:DMCA Template:DMCA

Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.

Sandy Gall
CMG CBE
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found.
Gall in 1976
Born
Henderson Alexander Gall

Script error: No such module "person date".
Penang, Straits Settlements, British Malaya
DiedScript error: No such module "person date".
Penshurst, Kent, England
Alma materUniversity of Aberdeen
OccupationTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Hlist/styles.css has no content.
Years active1953–2021
EmployerTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
  • ITN (1963–1992)
  • LBC (after 2003)
Template:Pluralize from text
OrganizationTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
AgentTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Notable creditTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
LabelTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
OpponentTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Template:Pluralize from text
SpouseTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Marriage/styles.css has no content.
Eleanor Smyth
​
​
(m. 1958; Template:Error-small 2018)​
Script error: No such module "Parameter validation".Template:Pluralize from text
PartnerTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Children4, including Carlotta
Template:Pluralize from text

Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for deprecated parameters".

Henderson Alexander "Sandy" Gall (1 October 1927 – 29 June 2025) was a Scottish journalist, author and Independent Television News (ITN) news presenter whose career as a journalist spanned more than 50 years. He began his career in journalism as a sub-editor at the Aberdeen Press and Journal in 1952 and became a foreign correspondent for the Reuters international news agency from 1953 to 1963. Gall joined ITN as a foreign reporter and troubleshooter in 1963, and also worked as a newscaster on News at Ten between 1970 and 1991. He was the Rector of the University of Aberdeen from 1978 to 1981 and founded the Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal charity with his wife in 1986.

Early life and education

Henderson Alexander Gall was born as the only child of Scottish parents on 1 October 1927,[1][2] on a rubber plantation in Penang, Straits Settlements (present-day Malaysia), where his father, Henderson, was a rubber planter.[2][3][4] His mother, Jean (née Begg), was a homemaker.[4] When he was four years old, he moved to Scotland and lived with relatives.[5] Gall was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, an independent boys' school in Perthshire, where he boarded.[6][7] He did his national service working as a physical training instructor in the Royal Air Force in Berlin for two and a half years.[5][7][8] Gall graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1952 with a Master of Arts degree in French and German.[4][8]

Career

In 1952 Gall began his journalistic career as a trainee sub-editor at the Aberdeen Press and Journal.[5][9][10] Gall applied to work as a trainee foreign correspondent for the Reuters international news agency and this was accepted in May 1953.[5][7][11] He remained at the agency until 1963.[4] Gall covered events in the Congo, East Africa, Germany, Hungary and South Africa.[12] In September 1960, along with the BBC's Richard Williams and the Daily ExpressTemplate:'s George Gale, he was arrested in Bakwanga in the breakaway province of Kasai whilst reporting on the Congo Crisis on suspicion of being a Belgian spy and for not having official Congolese documentation.[7][13][14] The three journalists were released into the custody of Tunisian soldiers attached to the United Nations Operation in the Congo.[14]

Gall joined Independent Television News (ITN) in 1963 as a foreign reporter and troubleshooter,[8] working in Afghanistan, Africa, China, the Far East, the Middle East and Vietnam.[12] He began working as a newsreader on News at Ten in 1970.[12] In 1972 he was arrested in Uganda on the orders of the dictator Idi Amin.[8][15] Gall was the presenter of the Thames Television programme A Place in Europe from 1975 to 1977[16][17] and of the programme Freeze in 1975, examining the aspects of freezers and the foods to store in them.[18] In January 1976 he and a camera operator were briefly detained by the police in Madrid after filming outside a strike-affected Chrysler car factory.[19] Gall narrated the ITV documentary Journey's End on the Vietnamese boat people who had settled at the Thorney Island camp near Portsmouth in 1980.[20]

He reported on the 1980 United States presidential election from the American Embassy in London,[21] and the Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer from Knightsbridge Barracks in July 1981.[22] In November 1982 he presented the one-hour documentary Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines that took two months to produce as he and a film crew covered Afghanistan under the Soviet occupation.[23][24] Gall was the subject of This is Your Life on 30 March 1983.[25] The following year, he was a contestant on the Channel 4 travel-based quiz programme Where in the World.[26][27] Gall reported on the Soviet–Afghan War in the documentary Allah Against the Gunships that was broadcast that October.[28][29]

He was a team captain on the quiz show Television Scrabble in 1985.[30] In the year after, Gall narrated an ITN programme on Sarah, Duchess of York, entitled A Royal Romance,[31] and spent three months filming the documentary Afghanistan; Agony of a Nation that was broadcast in November 1986 because he believed the Soviet-Afghan war was not being reported on correctly.[32] In 1988 he participated in BBC2's International Pro-Celebrity Golf competition,[33] and in the following year, presented the 1989 ITV documentary George Adamson: Lord of the Lions in which he interviewed the conservationist George Adamson.[34]

Gall made his final appearance as a newsreader on News at Ten on 4 January 1991;[35] he returned to a special reporting role in the same month, covering Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan.[36] He made the decision to retire from ITN in late 1992.[4][37] He continued working in a freelance capacity in television and writing from 1993 onwards.[1] In 1995 Gall wrote and presented the ITV documentary Network First: The Man Who Saved the Animals that profiled the conservationist Richard Leakey.[38] That same year, he signed up to present the BBC Radio 4 travel programme Breakaway,[15] and the following year, he presented the BBC2 programme The Empty Quarter in which he toured the world's largest sand desert, the Rub' al Khali.[39][40]

In late 2002, Gall was signed by Channel 5 to present a week of special four-minute reports from Afghanistan on attempts to restore the Buddhas of Bamiyan that were destroyed by the Taliban.[41] He presented a documentary examining the history of Afghanistan from Alexander the Great to the Taliban in the 2004 History Channel documentary Afghanistan: War Without End.[42][43] Gall was the rector of the University of Aberdeen from 1978 to 1981,[4] and in 1986 he and his wife founded Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal charity to assist in the training of Afghan officials in the provision of artificial limbs and physiotherapy treatment to children and other Afghan civil war victims.[44][45] He became the World Affairs Expert on the London-based LBC radio station in January 2003.[46]

Personal life and death

Gall met the Foreign Office employee Eleanor Smyth in Budapest in 1956 while he was reporting on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[4][47] They were married from 29 August 1958 until her death on 9 September 2018.[4][48] They had four children,[4][12] one of whom, Carlotta, is also a journalist.[49] They separated after he had a two-year affair with a younger woman, but they later reconciled.[50] In June 1972 Gall was injured in a car accident in Bromley, Kent, and suffered facial cuts because he fell asleep while driving.[51][52] He was fined £25 plus £1 costs.[52]

Gall died at his home in Penshurst, Kent, on 29 June 2025, at the age of 97.[53][54]

Honours and awards

In 1981, he was made an honorary Doctor of Law by the University of Aberdeen.[4] Gall was awarded the Sitara-e-Pakistan in 1985 and the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1986.[55] He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987.[56] He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to the people of Afghanistan.[57]

Publications

Books

Articles

References

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy Gall". The Writers Directory. 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2024 – via Gale In Context: Biography.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jones, Tony (21 June 1979). "Every bit a gentleman". The Journal. p. 6. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Moore, Charles (14 August 2010). "Sandy Gall's dream for Afghanistan". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy Gall". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2024 – via Gale In Context: Biography.
  5. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gall, Henderson Alexander ('Sandy') (Oral history)". Imperial War Museum. 7 February 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Some former pupils show the way". The Herald. 6 October 1998. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Stephens, Joan (19 September 1979). "Fireproof—and he's been in some hot spots!". Leicester Mercury. p. 6. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Flett, Al (4 January 1978). "Newscaster recalls Amin jail ordeal". Leicester Mercury. p. 3. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hayward, Anthony, ed. (1990). The Completely Revised and Updated – Who's Who on Television – 1990–91 (Fifth ed.). London, England: Boxtree Limited. p. 73. ISBN 1-85283-105-7 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Messent, Maureen (29 September 1983). "Sandy Gall goes to war with Russia". Black Country Evening Mail. p. 17. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gale, George (9 March 1983). "Rogues, rovers and roisters". Evening Standard. p. 19. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Who's Who 2007 (159th ed.). London, England: A & C Black. 2007. p. 815. ISBN 978-0-7136-7527-6 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."UN Seeking Release of British Newsmen". Nottingham Evening Post. 3 September 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 9 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wright, Brian (5 September 1960). "Mystery of Mission by Czechs". The Daily Telegraph. p. 22. Retrieved 9 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.O'Carroll, Lisa (14 March 1995). "Intrepid Sandy set to break away on a new venture". Evening Standard. p. 15. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Day-Lewis, Sean (26 May 1975). "Brussels from the inside". The Daily Telegraph. p. 10. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What's On the Box – STV". Daily Record. 6 April 1977. p. 20. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."On Westward this autumn". Torquay Herald Express. 8 September 1975. p. 6. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Newsmen are held". Western Daily Press. 20 January 1976. p. 5. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Day-Lewis, Sean (8 April 1980). "Gall displays Reggie traits". The Daily Telegraph. p. 11. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."America Decides". The Daily Telegraph. 4 November 1980. p. 29. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.MacDonald, Keith (28 July 1981). "A guide to the wedding on TV". Manchester Evening News. p. 12. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy's 2 months with the Afghan rebels". Evening Sentinel. 23 November 1982. p. 2. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Austin, Tony (23 November 1982). "Sandy, the Afghan newshound". Daily Post. p. 13. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."TV and radio guide". Torquay Herald Express. 31 March 1983. p. 3. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Travelling cross channel". Dorset Echo. 17 March 1984. p. 5. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Revenge for Sandy and Kathie?". South Wales Argus. 12 May 1984. p. 5. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Allah against the Gunships". Bournemouth Evening Echo. 23 October 1984. p. 5. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.West, Roy (23 October 1984). "Sandy's Afghan scoop". Liverpool Echo. p. 17. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Scrabble to find the right words". Leicester Mercury. 29 July 1985. p. 8. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mafham, Rowena (16 June 1986). "Now Fergie's on tape". Reading Evening Post. p. 2. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Russia's Vietnam". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 11 November 1986. p. 15. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy in a bunker?". Lincolnshire Echo. 17 May 1988. p. 2. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Pope, Stephen (25 August 1989). "A lion among lions". The Independent. p. 29. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Final farewell". Cambridge Evening News. 5 January 1991. p. 6. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy Gall quits News at Ten for reporting job". The Daily Telegraph. 5 November 1990. p. 3. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sands of time". The Daily Telegraph. 19 September 1992. p. 17. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Why elephant man fell out of favour". Lincolnshire Echo. 24 January 1995. p. 5. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Desert adventure". Birmingham Evening Mail. 27 May 1996. p. 15. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Walker, Ian (27 May 1996). "I'll be watching". Cambridge Evening News. p. 19. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Leonard, Tom (14 November 2002). "Old newshounds back on scent for Channel Five". The Daily Telegraph. p. 16. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Multichannel: Afghanistan: War Without End". The Daily Telegraph. 29 November 2004. p. 25. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Darke, Kimberley (29 November 2004). "Digital Highlights: Afghanistan: War Without End". Evening Standard. p. 64. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  44. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The television journalist, the Taliban and a bloody war with few winners". The Yorkshire Post. 26 September 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  45. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Bonino puts paid to Sandy Gall's charity". The Sunday Telegraph. 21 March 1999. p. 18. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."News veteran Gall makes radio return". BBC News. 6 January 2003. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  47. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Willis, Peter (9 April 1973). "The news readers with the film star image". Liverpool Echo. p. 6. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  48. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Eleanor Mary Patricia Anne Gall". Legacy.com. 15 September 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  49. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gall tells of his fury over treatment of journalist daughter". AllMediaScotland. 26 January 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  50. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hayward, Stephen (2 September 1992). "Sandy's ex-lover in hiding as affair ends". Western Daily Press. p. 10. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  51. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy Gall Hurt". The Daily Telegraph. 13 June 1972. p. 1. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  52. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sandy Gall fell asleep at the wheel". Evening Standard. 31 August 1972. p. 6. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  53. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Legendary ITV News presenter Sandy Gall dies aged 97". ITV News. 30 June 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  54. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nossiter, Adam (3 July 2025). "Sandy Gall, War Correspondent Without Swagger, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  55. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal Former Recipients". Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 27 February 2014. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  56. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 51171"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 31 December 1987. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
  57. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 59647"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 31 December 2010. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
  58. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.P Sempa, Francis (23 November 2021). ""Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud" by Sandy Gall". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  59. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Coughlin, Con (2 February 2012). "War Against the Taliban by Sandy Gall: review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  60. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jones, JDF (16 July 2001). "The Bushmen's doom". Evening Standard. p. 49. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  61. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gott, Richard (12 February 1994). "Playing the Great Game with incredible Gall". The Guardian. p. 29. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  62. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Stephenson, H. (13 November 1991). "Book Review". Faversham Times. p. 19. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  63. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Dighton, Christopher (12 July 1989). "Old pro's view of tough war". Birmingham Metronews. p. 10. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  64. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jones, Pedr (25 June 1989). "Predictable plot and a dated conclusion". Wales on Sunday. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  65. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bishop, Patrick (14 February 1988). "Afghan agony". The Sunday Telegraph. p. 16. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  66. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Deedes, W. F. (30 September 1983). "Incurable reporter". The Daily Telegraph. p. 18. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  67. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Worsworth, Christopher (28 June 1981). "Crime Ration". The Observer. p. 33. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  68. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Brien, Jeremy (3 November 1977). "A first from Sandy". Bristol Evening Post. p. 5. Retrieved 10 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

Template:Rectors of the University of Aberdeen Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.

Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Sandy_Gall&oldid=3143902"