Eric Lloyd Williams
Lloyd Williams reported on the North African campaign of the British Eighth Army, which included troops from India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, among others.
[1] In 1943, Lloyd Williams entered the Libyan capital, Tripoli, a key Axis base, on 23 January,[2] the day the Eighth Army captured it from the Germans.
[7] Lloyd Williams won the South African Society of Journalists trophy for the best news story of 1943 for a report on a dash through no man's land that he and two other correspondents made in Italy in September that year.
One report says the correspondents were initially arrested as suspected enemy spies,[14] although Lloyd Williams does not confirm this in his war journal.
[16] They met General Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied armies in Italy, who shook their hands and told them, "Gentlemen, you have done something I would not have liked to attempt.
[19] The Allied Forces Headquarters Public Relations Office responded by reprimanding the three correspondents for going ahead of vanguard combat troops and endangering lives.
"It is undeniable that their recent journey might have resulted in the complete elimination of the whole party," Col. J V McCormack[20] wrote in a letter circulated to war correspondents and army public relations officers, dated 28 September.
He added that "escapades of this nature necessitate constantly leaving the road and taking cars over rough country", placing an unnecessary strain on transport at a time when the chances of getting vehicles replaced were nil.
However, the colonel conceded that the three men had gathered valuable information: "It has been recorded in a memorandum submitted by three correspondents that they carried out a very fine reconnaissance, for which the authorities were extremely grateful.
He also had a stint on the Rhodesia Herald in Salisbury before joining the South African Press Association (Sapa) as a parliamentary reporter.
[27] In 1957, Lloyd Williams joined the Anglo American Corporation as public relations consultant, working initially in Johannesburg.
He edited the corporation’s quarterly magazine, Optima,[28] writing in-depth articles on African countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Rhodesia.
Our armoured cars got in at first light and we reached it soon after 9.30, coming in from the east and driving at one time along part of the famous grand prix circuit at Mellaha.
[10] In a national broadcast on South African radio in February 1944, Lloyd Williams described some of the war correspondents he worked alongside in North Africa and Italy.
[34] Richard Dimbleby, BBC: "He got caught up in a stupid army arrangement which insisted that he stayed at headquarters and wrote only what the general staff approved.
Norman Soong, Central News Agency of China: "He came straight from Chungking to cover the Eighth Army for the Chinese press.
He didn’t have much in common with the rest of us except his hatred for any form of Fascism and his determination that the war should end with the defeat of Germany and Japan."
Quentin Reynolds, Collier's Weekly: "He wore an American Air Force cap that looked as though it belonged on a New York traffic cop.
Christopher Buckley, Daily Telegraph: "He tells everyone, even his best friends, that he always wanted to be a bishop because of the peace it would bring him, and also because he fancied himself in gaiters...He’s a great journalist."
