Background
Wheeler was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1923, where his father was working for the British Council. The family later moved to Hamburg, where his father was employed by a shipping company.
Wheeler was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1923, where his father was working for the British Council. The family later moved to Hamburg, where his father was employed by a shipping company.
Having joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1947, he became the corporation"s longest serving foreign correspondent, serving in the role until his death. Wheeler also had spells as presenter of several British Broadcasting Corporation current affairs television programmes including Newsnight and Panorama. Educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent, his first job was as an errand boy at the Daily Sketch newspaper at the age of 17.
He enlisted in the Royal Marines in 1941, rising to the rank of captain.
As part of 30 Assault Unit, a secret naval intelligence unit assembled by Ian Fleming, he participated in the Normandy landings as second-in-command to Patrick Dalzel-Job. After leaving the Royal Marines in 1947, Wheeler joined the British Broadcasting Corporation, initially as a sub-editor at the Latin American division of the World Service.
Wheeler"s long career as a foreign correspondent began with a three-year posting to Berlin in 1950, partly thanks to his fluency in German. He subsequently returned to the United Kingdom, becoming a producer on the fledgling current affairs series Panorama in 1956.
As part of Panorama"s team, he travelled to Hungary to cover what would become known as the Hungarian Uprising.
Taking Panorama"s camera into the country, despite being told not to, he filmed the jubilant Hungarian reaction to the rebellion. Just hours after Wheeler returned to Britain, Russia re-entered Hungary and crushed the revolt. Having declined an offer to become the programme"s editor, he was later assigned to New Delhi (where he reported extensively on the 1959 Tibetan uprising) and Washington, District of Columbia, where he covered the American Civil Rights Movement and the Watergate scandal between 1965 and 1973.
In the later years of his television career he was the American correspondent of Newsnight.
Wheeler was the first presenter of British Broadcasting Corporation World"s Dateline London discussion programme. He remained active in his later years as a presenter of documentary series on Radio 4 and a contributor to the network"s From Our Own Correspondent.
He had been working on a programme about the Dalai Lama until a few weeks before his death. Following his death, the British Journalism Review established the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism, which is presented annually at a conference co-hosted by the publication and the University of Westminster.
Winners of the award to date are Jeremy Paxman, Jeremy Bowen, Lindsey Hilsum and Alan Little.