Simon Cumbers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Cumbers
Simon Cumbers

Simon Peter Cumbers (January 23, 1968 - June 6, 2004) was an Irish-born freelance journalist working for the BBC who was murdered by Al Qaeda while filming one of the terrorist group's safehouse in Saudi Arabia.

Contents

[edit] Career

Cumbers was educated in St. Patrick's Classical School in Navan, County Meath. An editor of a school magazine, Tuarim, and a local radio broadcaster with pirate radio station Royal County Radio.

While at St. Patrick's, Simon worked initially with the Drogheda Independent and the Ipswich Evening Star, as a features writer, before becoming the Chief Reporter of Dublin's Capitol Radio (now called FM104).

In 1990 Cumbers moved to the United Kingdom to work with a variety of British broadcasters, including Sky News, ITN, APTN, and the BBC. Cumbers worked both as a journalist and a producer. In the late 1990s he retrained and became a cameraman as well, establishing Locum Productions, to supply cameramen to broadcasters, together with his wife, BBC journalist Louise Bevan.

Cumbers and BBC correspondent Frank Gardner were filming an Al Qaeda safehouse in Saudi Arabia when they were attacked. Gardner was critically wounded while Cumbers died instantly from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 36.

[edit] External links

[edit] Latest

[edit] Coverage of shooting

[edit] Reaction and obituary