Alan Whicker - Background

Background

Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt. When he was just three years old his father Charles became seriously ill and the family moved to Richmond in London (at that time in Surrey), where he and his mother remained after the death of his father. He attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School and, upon leaving school at 16 during the Second World War, he was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment of the British Army. He then joined the British Army's Film and Photo Unit in Italy in 1943, filming at Anzio and meeting such influential figures as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. He was also responsible for taking into custody British traitor John Amery.

In 2004, Whicker appeared in a successful television series on this topic, titled Whicker's War. In this series he reveals that he was one of the first of the Allied forces to enter Milan and that he took into custody an SS general and troopers who were looking after the SS vault of money. Whicker also shot footage of the body of Benito Mussolini.

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