How the fearless BBC star George Alagiah became the nation’s calming voice: From frontline operations in Afghanistan and Rwanda to the first images from Kosovo, the unflinching presenter who became one of our favorite news anchors

George Alagiah – who died today aged 67 – became one of Britain’s most popular news anchors during his 20-year career at the BBC.

Joining the company in 1989, he was one of the channel’s senior foreign correspondents, writing programs on subjects ranging from the Rwandan genocide to civil wars across Africa.

Alagiah was born to Tamil and Christian parents in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo in 1955, when the city was still considered part of the former British territory of Ceylon.

When Alagiah was six, the family moved to Ghana to escape anti-Tamil violence led by parliamentarians protesting that Tamil was an administrative language in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

During BBC coverage of the 2004 Asian tsunami, he returned to the country to find his grandfather’s former home had been destroyed in the natural disaster.

George Alagiah joined the BBC in 1989 and was one of the channel’s senior foreign correspondents

Alagiah in 2022 after returning to News At Six after months of treatment

The journalist as a young boy with his engineer father Donald

After his colon cancer diagnosis in 2014, Alagiah was forced to take a break from television.

He said at the time, “Now that I have it, it has made life richer.”

Alagiah shared updates while battling the disease, including in June 2020 when he found it had spread to his lungs.

Today his agent, Mary Greenham, said he died earlier this morning after “fighting to the bitter end”.

The journalist spent part of his childhood in Ghana in West Africa, where he moved with his engineer father Donald and mother Therese.

When Alagiah was 11, the family moved to England.

“In my head, I felt like a migrant,” Alagiah later said.

As one of the few 100 non-white boarders at St. John’s College, a Roman Catholic school in Portsmouth, he was occasionally confronted with racism from his fellow students.

“I didn’t know I was black until I came to the UK,” he said in 2019.

It was the groundbreaking Watergate investigation that inspired 17-year-old Alagiah to pursue a career in media.

The journalist became one of the BBC’s most renowned foreign correspondents. He is seen visiting Kibera, Keyna, Africa’s largest slum, in 2009

Alagiah in 2006 with his wife Frances Robathan (left) and Jane Ashley, daughter of Laura Ashley

He was inducted into the 2008 New Year’s Roll of Honor for OBE for services to journalism

He modeled himself on Carl Bernstein, the American journalist who played a key role in exposing the Republican “dirty tricks” scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1972.

In 2005, he joked that he was enticed by the angular exterior: ‘It was the open collar, the tie hanging around the navel, the cigarette in the mouth, the banging on a typewriter and the toppling of a government or a president.’ I thought that was cool.’

Alagiah’s journalism career began in a boxy and musty-smelling Durham student union office. During his freshman year, he became the editor of the student newspaper Pfalz, and an honorary honorary Mac computer is named after him to this day.

In an interview with the newspaper to mark its 800th issue in 2017, Alagiah opened up about his time as editor-in-chief. Under his supervision, he said, “There was always some kind of attempt to be serious, and then … our sense of fun overwhelmed us.”

Alagiah married his college sweetheart Frances Robathan in 1986 and they have two children, Adam and Matthew.

Alagiah and Raworth in a News At Six bulletin in 2007—the year he began presenting assignments

Alagiah with his co-host Sophie Raworth for a behind-the-scenes look at News at Six

Before joining the BBC in 1989, Alagiah was a developing country correspondent for South Magazine in Johannesburg.

He was named Amnesty International’s Journalist of the Year in 1994 for his coverage of the civil war in Burundi, and also won the Broadcasting Press Guild’s TV Journalist of the Year award.

He was also part of the BBC team that won a Bafta award in 2000 for its coverage of the Kosovo conflict, one of several awards he received during his broadcasting career.

After first hosting BBC Four News in 2002, he co-hosted the company’s 6pm news programme, first with Sophie Raworth and then Natasha Kaplinsky.

As of 2007, he was the show’s sole host while also serving as an assistant host for News at Ten.

He interviewed several world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In 2008 he was made an OBE by the New Year Honors List for services to journalism.

The following year he was asked by BBC management to step down from his role as promoter of the Fairtrade Foundation.

The company stated that its role in the group represented a professional conflict of interest due to its principles of impartiality.

In April 2014, it was first announced that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. It was later found that the disease had spread to his liver and lymph nodes.

After undergoing treatment, he announced on social media in October 2015 that he was returning to work, following which he was seen on screens in November.

A well-loved presenter, his return was welcomed by viewers and fellow journalists, including presenters of competing news programs.

In 2016, Alagiah said he was a “richer person” from his cancer diagnosis, which resulted in him undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy and three major surgeries, one of which involved removing much of his liver.

Alagiah’s health made headlines again in March 2020 when he tested positive for Covid-19 amid a global pandemic.

He credited his experience battling cancer with helping him deal with the “mild” coronavirus case.

In June 2020, Alagiah announced the cancer had spread to his lungs, but delivered a typically philosophical verdict.

He told the Times newspaper, “My doctors have never used the word ‘chronic’ or ‘curable’ in reference to my cancer.”

“They never used the word ‘terminal’ either.” I used to say to my oncologist, ‘Tell me when I need to get things done,’ and he didn’t tell me that, but he did tell me that the cancer is now in a third organ. It’s in my lungs.’

Alagiah said he kept the development secret and only told his editor.

He said, “I said to my doctor, ‘You have to take care of me.’ I don’t want to fill myself with worries. All I know is that he’s a smart guy who does what he can.”

In October 2021, an Alagiah representative announced he was stepping down from his presenting and journalism duties as he grappled with “a further spread of cancer.”

During a January 2022 interview, Alagiah spoke candidly about his long battle with cancer, saying, “It’s going to hit me in the end,” before adding, “I hope it’s going to be a long time, but I’m very lucky.”

Despite his no-nonsense approach to the illness, Alagiah remained positive when reflecting on his career and family life.

“I had to stop and say, ‘Wait a minute.’ “If that’s the point, would my life have been a failure?” he said.

He added, “And indeed, when I look back and look back on my journey…the family that I had, the opportunities that my family had, the great fortune to meet (Frances Robathan) who has been my wife and lover for all these years, the children that we raised…it didn’t feel like a failure.”

Alagiah made a temporary return to BBC News At Six in April 2022.

However, in October he revealed again that he had been forced to take time off from work after scans showed the cancer had continued to spread.

While sharing the news, Alagiah said, “A recent scan showed that my cancer has spread further, so it’s heavy things again.”

“I miss my co-workers.” Working in the newsroom was an important factor in staying energized and motivated.

“I look forward to being back in this studio as soon as possible.”

Away from journalism, Alagiah was a published author and his debut novel was shortlisted for a Society of Authors award.

His thriller The Burning Land, about corruption and murder in South Africa, was in the running for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, which is awarded to a first novel by an author over 60.