Philip Graves (journalist)

Major Philip Perceval Graves (born February 25, 1876 in Ballylickey Manor , County Cork , Ireland , † June 3, 1953 ibid) was a British journalist and author of Anglo-Irish origin. He was a long-time foreign correspondent for the London Times , including in Constantinople , and exposed the " Protocols of the Elders of Zion " as ( anti-Semitic ) forgeries.

Life

Graves studied at Haileybury and Oxford and became a journalist and author. The Graves are a prominent Anglo-Irish family who produced numerous important public figures, including the well-known German writer Robert Graves , who was a younger half-brother of Philip Graves. Philip's stepmother and Robert's mother was a German, a great niece of the famous Berlin historian Leopold von Ranke .

The Times, August 16, 1921

Philip Graves was the Times correspondent in Constantinople from 1908 to 1914. During this time, he engaged in bitter press feuds with the editors of the local German-language newspaper Ottoman Lloyd . In 1914, like all British people, Graves had to leave Constantinople. He served in the Middle East theater of war in the British Army from 1915 to 1919, then returned to the Times until his retirement in 1946 . Immediately after World War I, he exposed the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as anti-Semitic forgeries in a series of articles in the Times . From 1919, at the height of the Irish struggle for freedom , Graves reported from his homeland as the Times correspondent. He knew numerous prominent nationalist leaders such as Michael Collins and William Thomas Cosgrave and reported on all the key moments of this critical period in Irish history. He then worked for the Times as a foreign correspondent in India, the Levant and the Balkans and eventually returned to the London editorial office. His most monumental work was a 21-volume history of the Second World War , which he wrote volume for volume during the war. He received numerous international awards, including a French Knight of the Legion of Honor and the Italian Crown Order .

His book on Palestine "The Land of Three Faiths" was followed by numerous other works, including the memoirs of King Abdallah of Transjordan published by him in 1950 as well as several (natural) scientific and historical publications.

During his numerous travels, Philip Graves developed a keen interest in entomology , especially in relation to lepidoptera . He collected butterflies in the Middle East , Palestine , Cyprus , Egypt and also in England . He published scientific articles in entomological journals. He was also interested in Celtic antiquities and fishing. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy .

After his retirement, Graves retired to his country estate in Ireland and devoted himself mainly to his zoological hobbies. A brother of Philip Graves, Richard Graves , served as a British colonial administrator in the Middle East from 1903 and was the last British mayor of Jerusalem .

Works (selection)

• Briton and Turk . London, Hutchinson Publishers, 1941
• Palestine, the Land of Three Faiths . Jonathan Cape, 1923, online at the Internet Archive
• The question of the straits . Ernest Benn Publishers, 1931
• Memoirs of King Abdallah of Transjordan (edited by P. Graves, translated from the Arabic by G. Khuri), London, Jonathan Cape, 1950

literature

• Michael Hagemeister : The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in court. The Bern Trial 1933–1937 and the “Anti-Semitic International” . Zurich: Chronos, 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1385-7 , short biography p. 535

Web links

• Ballylickey Manor House, County Cork, Ireland, now run as a hotel by a son of Philip Graves
• The Source of "The Protocols of Zion" - An Exposure: By Philip Graves, London Times, August 16, 17 & 18, 1921
• Literature by and about Philip Graves in the WorldCat bibliographic database