Obituary: Patrick Seale

Seale, who was the first specialist economic correspondent assigned abroad by Reuters, joined Reuters Economic Services from Oxford University in 1954 and was assigned to Paris.

His meeting with Harold King, the terrifying chief representative in Paris, on his first day was notable. He so impressed King that he invited him to dinner that evening. Seale declined because of a previous engagement. King was furious. “So who are you having dinner with who is more important than Reuters chief representative for France”, stormed King. “The Rothschilds,” was the reply.

Seale was transferred to the European desk in London, but soon left (in 1959) to return to Oxford, where he pursued studies on the Middle East. They led to a succession of distinguished books, particularly on Syria, which culminated in Oxford bestowing a doctorate on him. Seale had spent most of the first 15 years of his life in Syria, where his father was a Christian missionary.

He joined the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and overlapped in Beirut with the notorious spy, Kim Philby, about whom he later wrote a book, Philby, The Long Road to Moscow.

Seale showed his versatility by setting up an art dealership and literary agency.

He married twice: Lamorna Heath in 1971, who died in 1978, mother of Orlando and Delilah, and Rana Kabbani, a Syrian, mother of Alexander and Yasmine. ■