Taking the world by surprise, on Friday 2 April 1982 Argentinian troops invaded what they call the Islas Malvinas (the Falkland Islands), in what the junta leader General Leopoldo Galtieri described as a “historic feat”.
Harold Briley, who has died of cancer aged 92, was the first to alert people in Britain and around the world to this shocking news. At that time the BBC World Service’s Latin America correspondent, he informed his radio audience from Rio de Janeiro that: “Argentina’s threatened invasion of the British colony, the Falkland Islands, is reported to be under way. A fleet headed by Argentina’s flagship, the Veinticinco de Mayo, was reported to be heading the invasion assault in which thousands of troops and aircraft were taking part.”
Briley then rushed to Buenos Aires to continue reporting on the conflict. This lasted more than two months before the taskforce sent from Britain by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, defeated the Argentinian forces, with the loss of hundreds of combatants on both sides.
During the Argentinian occupation of the islands, locals listened intently on hidden radios to Briley’s reports on the progress of the fighting, coming to trust him to give accurate reports on the momentous events taking place around them.
When he visited the islands shortly after the capitulation of the Argentinian forces in June, the locals put up a banner on Government House in Port Stanley simply reading, “God Bless You Harold”, and he was later awarded the freedom of Goose Green (the scene of an important battle) as well as the right to free drinks at the Falklands Club in Port Stanley. As he joked to his family, “it’s a long way to go for a pint”.
Briley went on to report from Argentina on the end of the military dictatorship there, as well as from many other countries in South America, before returning to Britain in 1983. He then became the BBC’s defence correspondent until retirement in 1990, when he was appointed OBE. Lord (Peter) Carrington, Thatcher’s foreign secretary, who was forced to resign over the debacle surrounding the Argentinian invasion of the islands, said of him: “In all his dealings with me he has been one of the best correspondents I have ever met and the most scrupulously honest and most considerate, assiduous, well-informed, objective and efficient.”
Born in Anfield, Liverpool, he was the son of Jessica (nee Humphreys) and Harold Briley Sr, a wheelwright. As a youngster, Harold Jr was good at football, leading to his family nickname of Dixie or Dix after the Everton footballer Dixie Dean.
During the second world war, he recalled being blown out of bed by a German bomb that destroyed most of his street, and was subsequently evacuated to the Isle of Man, where he attended the Douglas high school for boys. He began his journalism career on the Isle of Man, where he also met Norah Mylrea. They married in 1956.
After national service with the Royal Artillery on the border between Hong Kong and communist China, he worked on newspapers in Manchester and on the Liverpool Post and Echo as a crime reporter.
Joining the BBC in the late 1950s as a writer for Today in Parliament, Briley embarked on his career as a war correspondent when he was on a journalism scholarship in India and war with Pakistan broke out in 1971, leading to the establishment of Bangladesh.
He covered many international events in the late 60s and 70s, including the devastating earthquake in Romania in 1977, and the Iranian revolution in 1979.
In that same year he was appointed the BBC Latin America correspondent, almost immediately travelling to Nicaragua to report on the Sandinista revolution. He first visited the Falkland Islands in 1981, immediately identifying with the islanders and their wish to remain self-governing.
Following the end of the conflict in the south Atlantic, Briley continued his close relationship with the Falkland islanders. He ran the BBC World Service’s twice-weekly Calling the Falklands programme, edited the Falkland Islands Association Newsletter for more than 10 years, and was on the association’s executive committee.
In 2022, on the 40th anniversary of the war, he published his book Fight for Falklands Freedom, critical of what he saw as attempts by James Callaghan’s Labour government to negotiate the transfer of sovereignty of the islands to Argentina.
In recognition of his support for their cause, in 2022 a park near Port Stanley was named after him, an honour of which he was immensely proud.
He is survived by Norah, their daughter, Heather, and son, Kevin, and a grandson, Matthew.
• Harold William Briley, journalist, born 20 March 1931; died 26 June 2023
• This article was amended on 1 September 2023. The invasion day of 2 April 1982 was a Friday rather than a Tuesday.
