Alexander Gault MacGowan

Who was Alexander Gault MacGowan?

Alexander Gault MacGowan was a leading war correspondent during World War II. Born to Scottish parents in Manchester, England, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School. MacGowan served with the British army in India during WWI. On 23 May 1923, he received a lieutenant's commission in the 8th Light Cavalry of the Army in India Reserve of Officers. From 1929 to 1934, while he was the editor of the Trinidad Guardian, MacGowan hired Seepersad Naipaul, the father of Nobel prize-winning V. S. Naipaul, to write features for that newspaper. In October 1934, MacGowan began a sixteen-year stint with The Sun of New York, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun. He rose from correspondent to become managing editor of The Sun's European Bureau after the war.

Before the war, MacGowan won a Selfridge Award in 1932 for an article about Devil's Island in The Times. Later, he covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Spanish Civil War, and spent time in Morocco with the French Foreign Legion. During World War II, MacGowan continued writing for The Sun, covering the Battle of Britain, the disastrous Dieppe raid.