Peter King, long-serving announcer with the World Service, died on Monday, September 13th.  He was 89.

Funeral details to follow.

This obituary of Peter King has been written for Prospero by his friend, Brian Denney:

Peter King died on 13th September 2010, at the age of 89, after a long illness endured with stoicism and good humour.

I first met Peter in 1947 when, as a very junior Programme Engineer, I found myself in the various continuity studios of the Overseas Services at 200, Oxford Street. Announcers in those days could be rather intimidating people, but Peter was very much the exception. You could not fail to like him but behind the relaxed bonhomie lay a total professionalism.

He was born in 1921 in Margate, where his father ran a small business. He was educated locally and remembers attending a performance of Handel’s “Messiah”, in Canterbury Cathedral, an experience which awakened a lifelong love of classical music. On leaving school, he had a variety of jobs, including at one stage as a barber’s assistant!

During the 2nd World War Peter was posted to the 8th Army in Egypt, where he fought at Tobruk and El Alamein. Subsequently he took part in the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. During the 2nd Army’s victorious advance through Germany, Peter was among the first to enter the camp at Bergen-Belsen; an experience he never forgot. At the end of hostilities, he was posted to the newly created British Forces Broadcasting Service in Hamburg, where he learnt the elements of his craft.

Peter joined the BBC Overseas Services in 1946 as an announcer. As well as his usual duties of continuity and news reading, he quickly showed his aptitude for a wide range of activities, excelling in the presentation of popular music, working with the orchestras of Joe Loss, Geraldo and George Melachrino, to name but a few.

He was also a frequent presenter of the Proms to an overseas audience. For these and other programmes, he always wrote his own material. In 1948, he was asked to introduce the Olympic Games, which he did brilliantly, although admitting he knew little about athletics!

Peter always remained loyal to the Overseas Services, but made periodic forays into television in the 1950s and to Radio 2 in 1965, where he presented the highly successful “Late Night Live” which mixed studio interviews with OB contributions.

He was called back from retirement in 1982 to present “Calling the Falklands”, at the outbreak of the war, a programme he had last introduced 40 years earlier in very different circumstances. He always signed off with “keep your heads down and your hearts high,” a phrase which became a morale booster amongst the Falklanders. At the end of the conflict, he was invited by the Governor to receive the grateful thanks of the “Kelpers”.

During retirement, Peter had joined Bowers and Wilkins, a firm dedicated to the development of the highest quality of loudspeakers, a life-long interest. He also became an excellent potter. During the Queen’s Jubilee, he was awarded the Queen’s Medal.

Peter King was one of the finest broadcasters of his generation. His old friend, John Arlott, would have called him a great all-rounder. He was also the nicest man you could wish to work with. We shall all miss him and sympathies go out to wife Glen and son Toby.