Born inBritish Malaya, Wavell became a broadcaster withRadio Malaya, presenting programmes about the course of theMalayan Emergency in 1953, establishing their Sound Library, and pioneering their phone-in broadcasting.[1] Between 1954 and 1962 he also produced or participated in a number of programmes or segments for theBBC, including coverage of the royal tour of the Commonwealth in 1954,[2] and a profile ofTom Harrisson broadcast on 30 September 1960.[3] His main interests were folklore, cultural anthropology, and exploration, and he was known for his field recordings in these areas.[4][5] In 1960 he was the BBC's Burmese programme organiser,[6] and in 1963 he accompanied aCambridge University expedition to locate the ancient "lost" kingdoms ofLangkasuka andTambralinga.
In the late 1960s he served as director of training for theCeylon Broadcasting Corporation, and wrote a training manual for them.[7] By 1976 he was living inSurrey, England,[8] and working as head of the BBC's Far Eastern Service.[9] He died inCroydon on 16 September 2010.[10]
^Peter J. Bloom, "The Language of Counterinsurgency in Malaya", inColonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia, edited by Ian Aitken (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), p. 76.
^Patrick Newman,Tracking the Weretiger: Supernatural Man-Eaters of India, China and Southeast Asia (Jefferson NC and London, 2012), pp. 39-40, 129-132.
