Cyril Ray

[5] He took a short service commission in the Royal Air Force, and was posted to an obsolescent balloon squadron.

On one occasion, with no authority whatever, he assumed temporary command of a Canadian platoon in Italy when its officer and senior NCOs had been put out of action.

In 1944 he moved to the BBC as correspondent with the American airborne assault on Nijmegen and with the Third Army push into Germany.

He followed that with a spell as a freelance, during which he enhanced his reputation as a broadcaster, already made in radio talks during the war.

[5] During this period he was also a member of UNESCO missions in Italy, Greece, and countries in east, central and southern Africa, between 1945 and 1950.

"[6] From 1950 to 1952 Ray was the paper's Moscow correspondent, a frustrating post at a time when the Soviet authorities were at their most secretive and suspicious.

[5] In 1953 he "settled down after 43 years as a bachelor, bon vivant and boulevardier, to live happily ever after with his wife, Liz,"[6] – Elizabeth Mary Brocklehurst, with whom he had one son.

[5] In the words of The Times, "Ray quickly developed his own style of wine writing, which was practical and factual with a lively spicing of anecdote.

He told Smith that his private idea of paradise would be to lie on a chaise-longue reading paperback thrillers and being brought Guinness every hour by nubile girls.

[6] He wrote books about the makers of great wine, including Bollinger champagne, and Châteaux Lafite and Mouton Rothschild.