Dickie Arbiter

Last updated

Dickie Arbiter

LVO
BornSeptember 1940 (age 83)
London, England, United Kingdom
Known forPress secretary for Queen Elizabeth II (1988–2000)
Media reporter for the British Royal Family
Children1

Dickie Arbiter [1] [2] LVO (born September 1940) is a British journalist, television and radio commentator on the British royal family and an international public speaker. He was a press spokesman for Queen Elizabeth II from 1988 until 2000; [3] in the 1996 Birthday Honours, he was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO). [4]

Contents

Biography

Arbiter was born to German Jewish refugee parents during a World War II air raid on London. [5] After college in London, he was an actor and stage manager in South Africa and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, where he became a television and radio news reporter. His most famous on-air slip up occurred when he started a radio broadcast with, "I am an oil tanker, Dickie Arbiter is on fire in the Gulf." This would then go on to be immortalised by Fi Glover as the title of her book I am an Oil Tanker: Travels with My Radio.

Upon his return to the United Kingdom, he was a special events presenter for LBC and court correspondent for Independent Radio News [6]

His television appearances include Newsnight , BBC Breakfast , BBC News , This Morning , Larry King Live and Richard and Judy . [7] [8]

In March 2021, he was tricked by a fictional news company created by YouTuber pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners into giving his purported reaction to the Oprah with Meghan and Harry interview two days before the interview was aired. [9]

Personal life

He is the father of Victoria Arbiter, who is a commentator on the Royal Family. [10]

Publication

His book On Duty with the Queen: My Twelve Years as a Buckingham Palace Press Secretary was published in October 2014. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex</span> Member of the British royal family (born 1984)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a member of the British royal family. As the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, Harry is fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.

The British royal family comprises King Charles III and his close relations. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member, although the Royal Household has issued different lists outlining who is a part of the royal family. Members often support the monarch in undertaking public engagements, and pursue charitable work and interests. The royal family are regarded as British and world cultural icons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William, Prince of Wales</span> Heir apparent to the British throne (born 1982)

William, Prince of Wales,, is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Andrew, Duke of York</span> British prince (born 1960)

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is a member of the British royal family. He is the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a younger brother of King Charles III. Andrew was born second in the line of succession to the British throne and is now eighth, and the first person in the line who is not a descendant of the reigning monarch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington Palace</span> Residence of the British royal family in London

Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century, and is currently the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank and their two sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piers Morgan</span> British journalist and television host (born 1965)

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his career in 1988 at the tabloid The Sun. In 1994, aged 29, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995, Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004. He was the editorial director of First News from 2006 to 2007. In 2014, Morgan became the first editor-at-large of the MailOnline website's US operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King's Guard</span> Military units charged with protecting the royal residences of the United Kingdom

The King's Guard are sentry postings at Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, organised by the British Army's Household Division. The Household Division also mounts sentry postings at Horse Guards, known as the King's Life Guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Young, Baron Young of Old Windsor</span> British courtier (born 1966)

Edward Young, Baron Young of Old Windsor,, is a British courtier who served as Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 2017 to 2023. In this role, he was the senior operational member of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. Young was recruited to the Royal Household in 2004, serving as Queen Elizabeth II's assistant and then as deputy private secretary until his promotion to private secretary in 2017. After the death of Elizabeth II in 2022, Young served as joint principal private secretary to King Charles III until he stepped down in May 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghan, Duchess of Sussex</span> Member of the British royal family and former actress (born 1981)

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personality and image of Elizabeth II</span> Public depiction of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

The image of Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms and Head of the Commonwealth from 1952 to 2022, was generally favourable throughout her years as a reigning monarch. Conservative in dress, she was well known for her solid-colour overcoats and matching hats, which allowed her to be seen easily in a crowd. She attended many cultural events as part of her public role. Her main leisure interests included horse racing, photography, and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh corgis. She ate jam sandwiches every day since childhood. Some of her other favorite foods were fish and chips, chocolate perfection pie, scones with jam and clotted cream, salmon from the River Dee and Morecambe Bay potted shrimp. Her views on political issues and other matters were largely subject to conjecture. She never gave a press interview and was otherwise not known to discuss her personal opinions publicly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Households of the United Kingdom</span> Collective departments of the British royal family

The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments that support members of the British royal family. Many members of the royal family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, from the large household that supports the sovereign to the household of the Prince and Princess of Wales, with fewer members.

Richard Fitzwilliams is a British public relations consultant and commentator known for his specialisation in promoting figurative art exhibitions, including those held at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Threadneedle Prize at the Mall Galleries. He is also recognized as a royal commentator and film critic, having conducted over 400 television interviews and numerous radio interviews. From 1975 to 2001, he served as the editor of The International Who's Who. Additionally, he delivers lectures on the British honours system and the British Who's Who while also writing and broadcasting about arts events in London.

Amol Rajan is an Indian-born British journalist, broadcaster and writer. Rajan is a former adviser to Lord (Evgeny) Lebedev, and was appointed the editor of his newspaper The Independent in 2013. When The Independent announced it was dropping the print edition in February 2016, and continuing as only an online operation, he was retained for a period as "editor-at-large". He was the media editor of BBC News from December 2016 to January 2023, and has been a presenter on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021. He replaced Jeremy Paxman as the host of University Challenge on 17 July 2023.

<i>Good Morning Britain</i> (2014 TV programme) Breakfast television

Good Morning Britain is a British breakfast television programme that is broadcast on ITV. It first appeared on 28 April 2014 and is broadcast live every weekday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am across the United Kingdom. The programme features a variety of news, interviews, politics, sport, entertainment, competitions and weather as well as local news bulletins delivered by the ITV regions. The programme is currently presented by Susanna Reid, Kate Garraway, Charlotte Hawkins and Ranvir Singh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle</span> 2018 British royal wedding

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held on Saturday 19 May 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. The groom is a member of the British royal family; the bride is American and previously worked as an actress, blogger, charity ambassador, and advocate. On the morning of the wedding, Prince Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, conferred upon him the titles of Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel. Upon her marriage, Markle became a princess of the United Kingdom and gained the style Her Royal Highness and titles Duchess of Sussex, Countess of Dumbarton and Baroness Kilkeel. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated at the wedding using the standard Anglican church service for Holy Matrimony published in Common Worship, a liturgical text of the Church of England. The traditional ceremony was noted for the inclusion of African-American culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Appleton</span> British town crier

Tony Appleton is a British town crier who is most notable for his unofficial announcements of royal events such as the birth of Prince George of Cambridge in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megxit</span> 2020 withdrawal of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from royal duties

On 8 January 2020, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced on Instagram their decision to "step back as 'senior' members" of the British royal family, split their time between the United Kingdom and North America, and become financially independent. This was dubbed Megxit, a portmanteau of the words "Meghan" and "exit" and a play on the term Brexit, and adopted globally on mainstream and social media, spawning various Internet memes and "Megxit" merchandising.

Oprah with Meghan and Harry is a 2021 television special hosted by American media personality Oprah Winfrey, that featured an interview between Winfrey, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The special premiered March 7, 2021, on CBS in the United States, and in the United Kingdom the next day on ITV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Trooping the Colour</span> Parade for the Queens Official Birthday

The 2022 Trooping the Colour ceremony was held on Thursday 2 June 2022, as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. Over 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians came together in the traditional parade to mark the Queen's Official Birthday, which usually takes place on the second Saturday of June. It was the final Birthday Parade to take place under the reign of Elizabeth II before her death on 8 September later that year.

<i>Harry & Meghan</i> 2022 documentary series on Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Harry & Meghan is an American documentary series streaming on Netflix, starring Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The series has six parts and covers the couple's relationship from their early courtship to their decision to step back as working members of the British royal family and their subsequent activities. It also includes interviews with family, friends, historians, and journalists.

References

  1. "Richard Winston ARBITER - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  2. Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 1995, ed. Charles Kidd, p. 95
  3. Arbiter, Dickie (April 2016). On Duty with the Queen. ISBN   9781910536278.
  4. "No. 54427". The London Gazette . 14 June 1996. p. 4.
  5. Langford, Georgina (26 November 2014). "Tales From The Palace With Dickie Arbiter". Tatler Hong Kong. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  6. Sheila Tracy (1983). Who's who on radio. Worlds Work Ltd. ISBN   0-437-17600-2.
  7. Biography at Dickie Arbiter Website. Retrieved 4 July 2017
  8. Dickie Arbiter Showreel on YouTube. Retrieved 2 June 2012
  9. "Royal commentators hoaxed into critique of Meghan interview before seeing it". the Guardian. 7 March 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  10. "How the Queen's 'mental discipline' has helped her cope with a tough year". honey.nine.com.au. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  11. Dickie Arbiter (April 2016). On Duty with the Queen. Blink Publishing. ISBN   978-1-910536-27-8.