{{Short description|British journalist (1943–2021)}} {{For|the former judge and politician in Nova Scotia|Edward Mortimer (businessman)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Use British English|date=September 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Edward Mortimer | honorific_suffix = [[Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]] | image = File:edwardMortimer.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1943|12|22}} | birth_place = [[Burford]], [[Oxfordshire]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2021|6|18|1943|12|22}} | death_place = [[Oxford]], England | education = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]<br>[[All Souls College, Oxford]] | occupation = {{hlist|Civil servant|journalist|academic}} | spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Zanetti|1968}} | children = 4 }}
'''Edward Mortimer''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG}} (22 December 1943 – 18 June 2021)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Peel|first=Quentin|date=20 June 2021|title=Edward Mortimer, academic, journalist and UN official, 1943-2021|url=https://www.ft.com/content/6c30cdd2-0e53-4901-bcc4-4d3dff8a96fe|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|access-date=20 June 2021|website=[[Financial Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210620172301/https://www.ft.com/content/6c30cdd2-0e53-4901-bcc4-4d3dff8a96fe |archive-date=20 June 2021 }}</ref> was a UN civil servant, journalist, author and academic. He was Distinguished Fellow of [[All Souls College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], from 2013.<ref name=":2" /> From 2001 to 2006, he was the Director of Communications in the Executive Office of the [[United Nations]] [[Secretary-General]] [[Kofi Annan]] and was the chief speechwriter from 1998 to 2006.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Edward Mortimer {{!}} All Souls College|url=https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/person/edward-mortimer|access-date=20 June 2021|website=www.asc.ox.ac.uk}}</ref> He was the chair of the [[Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://una.org.uk/news/una-uk-mourns-death-edward-mortimer | title=UNA-UK mourns the death of Edward Mortimer | publisher=United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK) | date=23 June 2021 | accessdate=7 July 2021}}</ref> from 2010 to 2015 and one of the key people integral to the creation of the Campaign.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.srilankacampaign.org/in-memory-of-edward-mortimer-1943-2021/?fbclid=IwAR1gzWuI2sah_2zgjxtQkKt-Se3Z4i8gasL9aTRda1z5HV6fgIioOzhRNfw | title=In memory of Edward Mortimer (1943-2021) | publisher=[[Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice]] | date=7 July 2021 | accessdate=7 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/un-step-sri-lanka-war-crimes-inquiry | title=UN takes step towards Sri Lanka war crimes inquiry | publisher=[[The Guardian]] | date=27 March 2014 | accessdate=7 July 2021 | author=Jason Burke}}</ref>
Mortimer was appointed [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]] (CMG) in the 2010 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=59282|date=31 December 2009|page=3|supp=y }}</ref>
== Early life and education == Edward Mortimer was born on 22 December 1943 in [[Burford]], [[Oxfordshire]], the son of [[Robert Mortimer (bishop)|Robert Mortimer]], Regius Professor of Moral Theology at Christ Church, Oxford and later [[Bishop of Exeter]] and his wife Mary.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Mortimer, Edward (1943–2021), journalist and international civil servant|last = McKane|first = Christopher|date = 2025|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000382763}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-07-08|title=Edward Mortimer obituary|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/08/edward-mortimer-obituary|access-date=2021-07-09|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Mortimer was a scholar at [[Eton College]] and studied history at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], from 1962 to 1965, graduating with a [[British undergraduate degree classification#Variations in classifications|congratulatory first]], and was a [[All Souls College, Oxford#Examination fellowships|Prize Fellow]] at All Souls College, Oxford, from 1965 to 1972.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> In 1963, during his time at Balliol, he was part of the team that reached the final of the first series of ''[[University Challenge]]'', losing to Leicester University.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blanchflower.org/uc/uc63.html|title=University Challenge, 1962-3}}</ref>
== Career == Before university Mortimer went to Senegal to do Voluntary Service Overseas, and taught English for a short period in a lycée in St Louis. After leaving Oxford he went to Paris to do research for a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]], but set it aside in 1967 when he was hired as a reporter in The Times Paris office. He returned to Oxford in 1970 to write a book on the [[French Communist Party]]. During his time in Paris he documented the student riots and the last days of [[Charles de Gaulle|Charles de Gaulle's]] presidency. Left-leaning in his politics, he later reflected that "For me, May 1968 was certainly the high point of the Sixties."<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=23 June 2021|title=Edward Mortimer obituary|language=en|work=[[The Times]]|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/edward-mortimer-obituary-80v3q3ffw|url-access=subscription|access-date=23 June 2021|issn=0140-0460}}</ref> He went on to become a columnist and [[List of leader writers|leader writer]] for ''The Times'' and foreign affairs editor for the ''[[Financial Times]]''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Between 2007 and 2012 he was Senior Vice President of the [[Salzburg Global Seminar]] and was a member of the Advisory Council of [[Independent Diplomat]].
==Personal life == Mortimer married painter and sculptor Elizabeth Zanetti in [[Exeter]] in 1968; together they had four children.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Mortimer, Edward, (born 22 Dec. 1943), freelance writer and consultant; Distinguished Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, since 2013|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-250694|access-date=20 June 2021|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u250694}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> He died of prostate cancer at [[Churchill Hospital]] in [[Oxford]] on 18 June 2021, aged 77.<ref name=":0" /><ref name = ODNB/><ref>{{Cite web|date=21 June 2021|title=‘His words set a standard and will long endure’: UN mourns passing of Edward Mortimer|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094442|access-date=22 June 2021|website=UN News|language=en}}</ref>
== Selected bibliography == #''France and the Africans, 1944-60: A Political History'' Faber & Faber, 1969. #''Faith and Power, the politics of Islam'' Random House, New York, 1982. #''Roosevelt's Children: Tomorrow's World Leaders and Their World'' Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1987. #''The World That FDR Built: Vision and Reality'' Scribner, 1989.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070610192748/http://www.una-uk.org/28%20Nov_Mortimer%20Bio.pdf Biography at UNA-UK]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortimer, Edward}} [[Category:1943 births]] [[Category:2021 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]] [[Category:British male journalists]] [[Category:British officials of the United Nations]] [[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]] [[Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford]] [[Category:Financial Times people]] [[Category:People educated at Eton College]] [[Category:People from Burford]] [[Category:The Times journalists]] [[Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in England]] [[Category:20th-century British journalists]]