Charles à Court Repington - War Correspondent

War Correspondent

On returning to London, he took a position as a military correspondent with the Morning Post from 1902–1904, and The Times from 1904-1918. His coverage as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 later appeared in book form as The War in the Far East. "Repington was a firm advocate of a strong national army (at the expense of the navy, much to the annoyance of Admiral Fisher). His journalism therefore tended to be geared towards propounding his belief in a firm national defensive policy." He supported a General Staff, feared a German “bolt from the blue” and was a “westerner”. According to his memoir "Vestigia" an unnamed Radical paper once called him “the gorgeous Wreckington,” but this was a personal attack in reference to his divorce scandal.

During World War I he relied on his contacts in the British Army and the War Office for his information, and through his friendship with the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir John French, Repington was able visit the Western Front in November 1914, at a time when most rival war correspondents were banned from France.