Peter Dimmock

Peter Harold Dimmock, CVO, CBE (6 December 1920 – 20 November 2015) was a British sports broadcaster and senior television executive during its formative years in the 1950s. He was the first host of the BBC's long-running Grandstand and of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.

Born in London, Dimmock attended Dulwich College and a finishing establishment in France. At the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Army Service Corps, a territorial unit. He was called up only two months later to serve in France during the retreat from Dunkirk. In March 1941 he was allowed to transfer into the Royal Air Force and qualified as a Pilot Officer. Then in 1943 he became a flying instructor on Tiger Moth and Miles Magister trainers with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. In February 1944 he was appointed as a staff officer at the Air Ministry. After demobilisation he joined the Press Association and later the BBC in March 1946, around the time the television service was revived, as the head of the service's outside broadcasts.

He organised 70 hours of outside coverage of the 1948 London Olympics. The following year he was the commentator on the University Boat Race. As head of outside broadcasts, Dimmock was in charge of events such as the Queen's Coronation in 1953 and the first televised Grand National in 1960. When King George VI died on 6 February 1952, it was a sombre occasion in which the nation witnessed Victorian-like royalty clad in black at the end of Empire. The empire may have passed on but sporting events only increased in number and frequency. When the Churchillian era closed, a General election was called for 1955, on which Dimmock provided a birds-eye-view of as general manager and head of department. He continued to be Head of Outside Broadcasts until leaving the BBC in 1972.

...
Wikipedia