Geoffery Cox, 'A Civilising Mission' | New Zealanders & the Rhodes Scholarship 1904- 2004, University of Otago Library Special Exhibition

A National Library Gallery Exhibition Supported by Rhodes House, Oxford

1932

Geoffrey Cox | Born 1910

Print version

(PDF 76 KB)

Journalist, writer, diplomat, television executive

‘It is difficult to imagine what a Rhodes scholarship meant in those days.
Apart from the 1851 Exhibition Scholarship it was about the only means of getting abroad to study.’

When Geoffrey Cox arrived at Oxford in 1932 on a Rhodes scholarship he had high expectations. But his initial reaction to the prestigious university was not as he had expected.

Sir Geoffrey Cox at his home in Gloucestershire. (Gloucestershire Press, supplied by University of Otago Magazine)

‘Oxford had been for me such a dazzling goal – one I had hardly dared dream of attaining…I was both surprised and dismayed to find myself at odds with the place. I found it unrealistic, dangerously insulated…cosseted by a high standard of living. It was an escapist atmosphere in which, at a vitally important period of our lives, we were being withdrawn from the hard facts of life instead of being brought face to face with them.’

To escape Oxford’s ivory towers Cox read Marx and Freud, and travelled to Russia and Europe to experience ‘the immediate matters of the day’ first hand. In 1934 he visited Germany to ‘see Nazism from the inside’. He worked in a German Youth Labour Camp during an Oxford vacation and later attended a Nazi Party Rally at Nuremburg.

As the world moved towards war, Cox became a journalist and covered fighting in Spain, Finland, Belgium and France. When war broke out he joined up with the New Zealanders and was in the battles of Crete and North Africa. In 1942 he was seconded to the New Zealand Embassy in Washington. Returning to the New Zealand Division in Italy, he became General Freyberg’s Chief Intelligence Officer.

Cox (at left) as a member of the Pacific War Council, Cabinet Room, White House Washington, 1 April 1943. Those around the table include Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. (Patrick Cox collection)

After the war Cox returned to England and his journalism career. In 1956 he was appointed Editor of Independent Television News (ITN) and pioneered many techniques of television journalism, including the half-hour news bulletin. His extensive writings include: Defence of Madrid, The Red Army Moves, The Road to Trieste, A Tale of Two Battles, Countdown to War, Pioneering TV News and Eyewitness – with, at 94, a book to come.

He was knighted in 1966 for services to journalism.

On the day of his selection as a Rhodes scholar, the Otago graduate Geoffrey Cox was grilled by Governor-General Lord Bledisloe about pig breeding. Cox’s confident reply obviously pleased Bledisloe, the chair of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee, because he was promptly appointed, along with James Bertram of Auckland. On display is his M.A. History thesis, completed in 1931, one year before he took up residence at Oriel College, Oxford.

Geoffrey Cox, ‘Early Life of Sir Robert Stout’, Honours and M.A. History thesis, 1931. T.2/ C. Hocken Library.

After Oriel College, Cox entered Fleet Street, where as a foreign correspondent in Europe for British newspapers, he covered many of the main events leading to World War II. In 1941, Victor Gollancz, the ‘Left Book’ publisher, published The Red Army Moves, Cox’s account of the Russo-Finnish War, Although he realized what he wrote might cause anger and hurt, he reminded people on both sides: ‘…I say only one thing – so far as I have been able I have written here the truth.

Geoffrey Cox, The Red Army Moves. London: Victor Gollancz, 1941. Private Collection.

After the war Cox returned to newspaper journalism in Britain. In 1956 he moved into television, becoming editor of the news service of Independent Television News (ITN). In 1966, he was knighted for services to journalism. Eyewitness is the first book Cox published in New Zealand. As he stated in the acknowledgements: ‘I am proud that it has been published by the Press of the University of which I have the privilege of being a graduate.’

Sir Geoffrey Cox, Eyewitness: A Memoir of Europe in the 1930s. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1999. Cen. D 720 CV633.

Journalist, writer, diplomat, television executive

Further Reading