Obituary: Gilbert Sedbon

Gil, as his numerous friends knew him, had served Reuters for nearly half a century. It was an extraordinary career by one of the most endearing people to have worked for Reuters, an organisation to which he was entirely devoted.

Gil was born in Alexandria, Egypt, then under British rule, to a family of Tunisian Jewish origin and was therefore a French national, something of which he was intensely proud.

He joined Reuters in Alexandria at the age of 18 and according to Stephen Somerville, in his review of Gil’s memoirs “From the Nile to the Seine: The lifelong story of a reporter in wars, revolutions and peacetime” published last year, his first job was reporting cotton prices, the main source of Egypt’s wealth, for Reuters’ economic services.

World War Two gave him his chance to excel at reporting major international stories. One of the first was a wartime victory for secret diplomacy: a “gentlemen’s agreement” between British and French admirals to disarm Force X, the French naval contingent based at Alexandria, without bloodshed. An ingenious compromise, reached after tense negotiations, prevented the French warships from falling under German or Vichy French control. Gilbert pieced the story together from contacts he had made at the French Club Nautique in Alexandria. It made headlines around the world, long before the British government published the agreement.

A sadder story that Gilbert recalled reporting was the wartime death of his first boss, Alexander “Jock” Massey-Anderson, manager in Alexandria, who was covering the Eastern Mediterranean as a naval correspondent. He drowned after his ship was torpedoed just outside Alexandria harbour. Gilbert’s report, based on interviews with survivors, ran prominently in the British and Allied press.

“And so on, throughout the war and the troubled peace that followed, Gilbert pursues every story with the same enthusiasm and determination, as well as, by his own admission, an element of luck,” Somerville wrote. “His advice to newcomers to journalism is: ‘Chance often smiles on the reporter in the field – if he grabs it fast.’ His own natural curiosity and his ability to establish contacts at all levels were other key elements in his successive scoops. It was an anonymous contact who tipped him off by telephone to the Egyptian army’s coup d’état in 1952. International communications were immediately cut off but Gilbert managed to intercept the senior army officer who was about to broadcast news of the military takeover. The officer not only helped Gilbert to write an official English version of the Arabic announcement but then ordered the military censor to release his story, alone among the world news agencies. Gilbert had a global scoop plus a first rate contact: the officer was Colonel Anwar Sadat, later to become President of Egypt.

“The news story that changed Gilbert’s life for ever was the Anglo-French Suez Canal expedition of 1956, when most foreigners were ordered out of Egypt. Together with his 20-year-old wife, Yolande, and their baby son, Eric, Gilbert was given 48 hours to wind up the affairs of a lifetime and fly off into exile. After brief stays in Rome and London, Reuters posted him to Paris for three months. It proved to be his base for the rest of his long career. But that’s another story. Book Two of these memoirs tells how Gilbert turns his reporting talents to the Cold War, defence and the aerospace business, while his young family – with the addition of a second son, Thierry – settle down, overcome some tough times and make France their new home. Paying tribute to his wife, he says: ‘Yo deserves all the praise and more.’ From the Nile to the Seine, the whole book is an impressive testimony to a man’s passion for his profession and devotion to his family.”

After retiring from Reuters in 1983 as diplomatic correspondent in France, Gil continued to work as a stringer for British and Australian aerospace magazines, drawing on his multiple contacts in the aerospace industry.

The funeral is on Thursday 30 June at the Cimetière Parisien de Pantin, 164 avenue Jean Jaures, in Pantin, adjacent to Paris. ■