Frederick Richard Dimbleby CBE (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster, who became the BBC's first war correspondent, and then its leading TV news commentator.

Richard's father had been press officer for the Ministry of Labour under David Lloyd George and held a position with the Daily Mail on Fleet Street, but had fallen out over interwar views on fascism and instead joined the family firm.

During the Second World War, he flew on some twenty raids as an observer with RAF Bomber Command, including a sortie on 16 January 1943 to Berlin piloted by Guy Gibson.

He was one of the first journalists to experiment with unconventional outside broadcasts, such as when flying in a de Havilland Mosquito accompanying a fighter aircraft raid on France, or being submerged in a diving suit.

On 1 November 1944 he accompanied a "pathfinder" RAF mission of Lancasters and Halifaxes, dropping coloured flares onto central Cologne to aid the following main bomb attack.

[9] In April 1945, as the BBC's war correspondent, he accompanied the British 11th Armoured Division to the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp making one of the first reports.

One woman, distraught to the point of madness, flung herself at a British soldier who was on guard in the camp on the night that it was reached by the 11th Armoured Division.

His first television broadcast was as a support to Freddie Grisewood to cover the Victory Day celebrations on 7 June 1946, which role he had specifically requested to the head of he BBC, Maurice Gorham.

He is perhaps best remembered as the commentator on a number of major public occasions, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the funerals of George VI, John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill.

He also introduced a special programme in July 1962 showing the first live television signal from the United States via the Telstar satellite.

In addition to heavyweight journalism, he took part in lighter sound radio programmes such as Twenty Questions (as a panel member) and Down Your Way (which he hosted).

[18] He made two return trips to Belsen at the BBC's request; firstly in the summer of 1959 as part of a documentrary "After the Battle" following six correspondents in their previous footsteps; and in 1965, which also took in the huge nearby military camp at Hohne by which time the Bergen memorial had been set up.

Examples included the lying-in-state of George VI in Westminster Hall, where he depicted the stillness of the guardsmen standing like statues at the four corners of the catafalque, or the description of the drums at Kennedy's funeral which, he said, "beat as the pulse of a man's heart."

To produce his commentaries, he carried out encyclopaedic research on all aspects of the venues of great events, their history and that of the ceremonies taking place, and the personalities involved.

Inevitably, because of his close association with establishment figures and royalty, some people criticised his "hushed tones" style of speaking at state occasions, claiming he was pompous.

A more common touch was demonstrated in his friendly broadcasts like Down Your Way where he met thousands of ordinary people in towns and villages, and the many trade unionists, politicians and industrialists etc.

[20] After commentating for half an hour on Elizabeth II's state visit in 1965 to Germany, Dimbleby uttered the mild expletive, "Jesus wept," unaware that the microphone was live, after discovering that the TV pictures had failed for all 30 minutes, meaning he would have to repeat the commentary.