Toby O'Brien
| Toby O'Brien | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Edward Donough O'Brien 21 November 1909 India |
| Died | 9 January 1979 (aged 69) England |
| Occupation | Journalist, propaganda expert |
Edward Donough "Toby" O'Brien (21 November 1909 – 9 January 1979) was an Anglo-Irish journalist and propaganda expert who spearheaded Britain's efforts to counter Nazi Germany propaganda during World War II.
O'Brien was born on the Baluchistan border in India to Colonel Aubrey O'Brien an Indian Army officer. The O'Brien family is one of the oldest lines of descent in Europe, dating back from much earlier than the Irish High King Brian Boru (941-1014).
At the age of five O'Brien was sent to England. Four years later he began attending St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne following his elder brother, Turlough. As his elder brother's initials TOB had given rise to the nickname Toby, he was known as Toby2, leading to subsequent confusion. He became friends with Alaric Jacob, and despite their political differences, O'Brien would refer to Jacob as his oldest friend.
O'Brien won a scholarship as one of the first batch of pupils to newly opened Stowe School and then earned a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford. Before Oxford he spent a term in Germany at Leipzig. At Oxford University he was President of the Oxford Union in 1932 and took part in a transatlantic debate with Harvard University.
O'Brien became a journalist, working at the Daily Telegraph, initially as assistant and eventually as editor of the Peterborough column. In 1936 he went to Germany ostensibly as a reporter but with a hidden agenda of assessing the Nazi regime and possible opponents of it. In 1938 he was recruited to the British Council as press officer. His duties, which were to secure favourable publicity for the council and its activities and to provide articles and photographs for the foreign press, in fact represented Britain's counter to Goebbels' Nazi propaganda. Aside from maintaining a network of supporters in the foreign press and pointing out German lies (including their claims that they had sunk Royal Navy ships, which were, in fact, inland naval bases bearing the HMS prefix), O'Brien is credited with penning the lyrics to the Colonel Bogey tune "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball".
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