George Steer

George Lowther Steer (1909 – 25 December 1944) was a South African-born British journalist, author and war correspondent who reported on wars preceding World War II, especially the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and the Spanish Civil War. During those wars he was employed by The Times, and his eye-witness reports did much to alert western nations of war crimes committed by the Italians in Ethiopia and by the Germans in Spain, although little was done to prevent them by the League of Nations. He returned to Ethiopia after the world war started and helped the campaign defeat the Italians and restore Hailie Selassie to the throne.

George Steer was born in South Africa in 1909, the son of a newspaper manager. He studied classics in England, at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford. He began his journalistic career in South Africa, then worked in London for the Yorkshire Post.

In 1935 Steer covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, also known as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, for The Times. He reported that Italian forces made extensive use of poison gas in the form of mustard gas and also bombed Red Cross ambulances, despite clear markings of the red cross. He was involved in helping to transport gas masks to Ethiopia to give at least some protection against the poison gases deployed illegally by the Italians. He became friendly with Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, who later became godfather to Steer's son. He met and married his first wife in Ethiopia, under difficult conditions in the British Legation in Addis Ababa, with looting and rifle fire outside the gates of the compound. His wife and his first child died in childbirth in London a little later.

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