Kenneth Stonehouse - Life

Life

Stonehouse was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1908. He began his career working for the Cape Times and then joined the staff of the South African Morning Newspapers in London. He then applied to work for Reuters, who assigned him to New York. Stonehouse was then sent to Washington, D.C. as Reuters senior correspondent, covering top stories, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's visit to the United States and Canada during the Second World War. In the summer of 1943 Stonehouse had just completed an eighteen month assignment in Washington, D.C. when he volunteered to become a war correspondent with the United States armed forces fighting in Europe. In order to return to Europe Stonehouse and his wife Evelyn on 12 May 1943 Portuguese liner S.S. Serpa Pinto in New York to sail to Portugal, a neutral state during the war. They arrived in Lisbon on 28 May and booked a flight to London. On 1 June 1943 Stonehouse and his wife boarded BOAC Flight 777 to London when a German fighter planes shot down the plane over the Bay of Biscay, killing all on board.