The young Matthew Halton.
Pincher Creek, Alberta, early 1900s. (Photo ins. 1)
Halton siblings: (from left) Jim, Annie, Matt, and baby David.
Charlotte Street – a step up from the Red Shack.
Matt, shortly after graduation.
Jean Campbell, Matt’s girlfriend and classmate at the University of Alberta.
Matt and Jean, a romantic ride on the Carthew Trail.
Lady Nancy Astor, one of Matt’s patrons. (Photo ins. 2)
Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, a connection that would help catapult Matt into the top ranks of Canadian journalists. (Photo ins. 3)
The Toronto Daily Star at 80 King Street West where Matt began work in September 1931. (Photo ins. 4)
Matt and Jean attending the annual garden party at Buckingham Palace.
Matt and Jean at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in September 1933. Matt’s “German Series” for the Toronto Star was described as “the most informative, most damning, most crushing exposé of what Hitlerism means that has been penned by any foreign correspondent.”
At Windsor Castle for a photo shoot. Matt with King George VI, the Queen, and daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. The two extended photo sessions offered the Star team were unprecedented. (Photo ins. 5)
At the birth of celebrity journalism, Matt’s name was often blazoned on the front page.
Matthew Halton interviewing Canadian general Andrew McNaughton during the Phoney War. (Photo ins. 6)
Matt, wearing the winter camouflage of Finnish troops, during Finland’s war with Russia.
Throughout the war, Matt wrote frequently to Jean, sending three or four letters a week. (Photo ins. 7)
Sean Fielding (far left) and Matt (second from left) after leaving Sidi Omar in 1941.
After a swim, near El Alamein. Matt, far left.
From far right: Sean Fielding, Matt’s conducting officer and former newspaperman. Middle: Ronnie Noble, a news-film cameraman. Matt (far left).
Matt was twice assigned to report from India. Here, armed in what are now the tribal areas of Pakistan.
In his war correspondent’s uniform. (Photo ins. 8)
With daughter, Kathleen, aged three.
The author, aged four, as aspiring war correspondent, during Matt’s visit home in 1944.
Matt with his parents, Mary Alice and Henry, on a brief visit to Pincher Creek in August 1940.
(from right) Halton, Peter Stursberg, and Marcel Ouimet in Sicily. (Photo ins. 9)
Reporting from Italy. (Photo ins. 10)
Jean, with David and Kathleen.
Matt was teamed with Charles Lynch, a twenty-four-year-old Canadian working for the Reuters news agency, to cover the D-Day invasion. It would lead to a lasting friendship. Here, Lynch is interviewing soldiers from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. (Photo ins. 11)
Canadian soldiers patrolling in Caen, July 10, 1945. Matt and Radio-Canada’s Ouimet followed Canadian troops into the city, witnessing some of the most stirring scenes of the Normandy campaign. (Photo ins. 12)
Matt (bottom right) helping to evacuate equipment from the Canadian Press Centre near Courseulles just after it was bombed by the Germans.
French civilians take cover as the Place de la Concorde is raked with sniper fire, and a Resistance fighter looks on. In the background (right), the Ministère de la Marine, where Matt, Christiane, and Col. Dick Malone took refuge. (Photo ins. 13)
A book signing for the bestselling Ten Years to Alamein.
From left, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, Marcel Ouimet, and Matthew Halton, during a post-war visit to Normandy. (Photo ins. 14)
Members of the notorious Thursday Club, clowning after a well-lubricated dinner. From right: Matt (standing), Sean Fielding (with glasses), Prince Philip (seated). (Photo ins. 15)
14 Oakhill Avenue, the Halton residence in Hampstead.
Interviewing Marshall Tito in Belgrade. (Photo ins. 16)
In the late 1940s, broadcasting for the CBC. (Photo ins. 17)
Matt, on assignment in Yugoslavia. (Photo ins. 18)
More than 4,200 people watched Matt receive his doctoral degree from the University of Alberta, and deliver the convocation address, in April 1956.