Robin Day
| Sir Robin Day | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
24 October 1923 London, England |
| Died | 6 August 2000 (aged 76) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St Edmund Hall, Oxford |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, journalist, lawyer |
| Spouse(s) | Katherine Ainslie (1965–1986; divorced) |
| Children | 2 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1943–47 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | Royal Artillery |
Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was a British political broadcaster and commentator.
Day's obituary in The Guardian by Dick Taverne stated that "he was the most outstanding television journalist of his generation. He transformed the television interview, changed the relationship between politicians and television, and strove to assert balance and rationality into the medium's treatment of current affairs".
He was born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, the son of a telephone engineer who became a telephone manager. He attended Brentwood School from 1934 to 1938, briefly attended the Crypt School, Gloucester, and later Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight.
During and after World War II, between 1943 and 1947, he served with the army in East Africa, where he reached the rank of Captain but was demoted to Lieutenant as part of a cull of rear-echelon jobs.
After the war Day attended St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and, while a student, was elected president of the Oxford Union debating society. Day also took part in a debating tour of the United States, run by the English-Speaking Union.
He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1952, but practised only briefly. In his memoirs he recorded that he secured the acquittal of a lorry-driver accused of indecent exposure by persuading the magistrates that the man had been "shaking the drops from his person" after urinating, and by getting the man's young wife to testify, wearing a tight sweater, that she and her husband enjoyed a healthy love life.
Day spent almost his entire working life in journalism. He rose to prominence on the new Independent Television News (ITN) from 1955, when he was the first British journalist to interview Egypt's President Nasser after the Suez Crisis.
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Wikipedia