Robertson, Benjamin Franklin, Jr. | South Carolina Public Radio

“R” is for Robertson, Benjamin Franklin, Jr. [1903-1943]. Journalist. Robertson was a well-respected and well-traveled journalist and war correspondent and the author of three books. In 1940, he was hired by PM, a newspaper, as its London correspondent during the Battle of Britain. In 1941, he published I Saw England, a well-received account of British resolve during the blitz. After another stint in London, he returned home and began work on Red Hills and Cotton: An Upcountry Memory. During 1942, Robertson covered the war from Libya, the Soviet Union, and India for PM. In January 1943, he was hired by the New York Herald-Tribune to run its London Bureau. On his way back to London in 1943, Benjamin Franklin Robertson, Jr., was killed when the flying boat Yankee Clipper crashed in the harbor, of Lisbon, Portugal.