Barbara Mandell

Allada Barbara Grenville Wells (15 July 1920 – 25 August 1998), known professionally as Barbara Mandell, was a British journalist, broadcaster, newsreader and travel writer. She became the United Kingdom's first female newsreader after she was recruited to present the Midday News on the newly launched Independent Television in 1955.

Life and career

Mandell was born in London, England, daughter of Royal Navy Lieutenant-Commander Yvo Hedworth Fortescue Grenville Wells, later deputy editor of The Rand Daily Mail, Mandell was the oldest of two daughters in the family.

She was raised in South Africa after her family relocated to that country in 1924 when her mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Her father was the deputy editor of South Africa's Rand Daily Mail and Mandell followed him into journalism, working for the same newspaper. She later worked for the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC) as a radio news editor, but subsequently returned to the United Kingdom in the early 1950s after a brief stay in the United States. After working for the BBC's Television Newsreel as a script editor she joined ITV upon its launch in 1955, and was one of three people chosen to present its news bulletins. Mandell was one of two female reporters to work for ITN in its early days (the other being Lynne Reid Banks), and helped to pioneer the use of so-called Vox pop reports in the United Kingdom – whereby one conducts interviews with ordinary members of the public in the street.

Following her retirement she moved to Luxembourg with her partner where she wrote travel books to European countries.

Personal life She met Alan Mandell (better known as broadcaster Alan Dell) while working for SABC, and the couple were married in 1945. However, they were divorced a decade later. She later met ITN cameraman Martin Gray with whom she lived until his death in 1996.