John Hinde

John Hinde
John Hinde as a war correspondent in 1942
Born	26 October 1911 Adelaide, South Australia
Died	4 July 2006(2006-07-04) (aged 94) Sydney, New South Wales
Occupation	Film Reviewer, News Reporter
Spouse(s)	Barbara Jefferis

John Hamilton Hinde AM (26 October 1911 – 4 July 2006) was an Australian broadcaster and film reviewer. He worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for more than fifty years, in both television and radio.

Hinde was also one of Australia's first foreign correspondents, reporting from the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Upon his death he bequeathed A$1 million to start a literary prize in honour of his late wife. He also left $500,000 to establish the John Hinde Award, for a science fiction script for film or television.

Born in 1911, Hinde grew up in Adelaide. He started studying medicine at the University of Adelaide, but dropped out and married. After a short lived marriage he went first to Melbourne and later to Sydney.

In Sydney, Hinde got a job with The Daily Telegraph in 1937, but was sacked by the editor, Syd Deamer, who mistook him for someone else. Hinde then took a job with the Labor Daily, but soon left because of a political disagreement. Deamer later became editor of ABC Weekly and rehired him. Hinde then joined the ABC News and Current Affairs department in 1939 and in the same year married for the second time to Barbara Jefferis (who later became a well-known novelist).

In 1942 Hinde got a break as a war correspondent, after senior correspondent, Haydon Lennard, was badly injured in a plane crash in New Guinea. Hinde was attached to General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in 1942, first in Melbourne and then Brisbane, and eventually got to New Guinea and the Pacific.

Hinde was hurt whilst at Hollandia in Netherlands New Guinea, after a Japanese Betty bomber bombed an US Army ammunition dump. His eyes were badly injured, which affected him for the rest of his life.