David Holden

David Shipley Holden (20 November 1924 – 7 December 1977) was a British journalist and purported double agent, best known as the chief foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times, specialising in Middle-Eastern affairs, from 1965. He was murdered in Cairo, Egypt.

His editor, Harold Evans, assigned six of his journalists to investigate the murder in the week following the killing. Three of those continued to investigate the murder during 1978, making multiple trips to the Middle East and the United States. They eventually wrote an internal report which was inconclusive in its findings, while suggesting that Holden had been involved with one or more intelligence services and was most likely killed by an Egyptian security group. In one of Evans' volumes of autobiography, My Paper Chase (2009), he described these events.

Early life and education Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England, he was educated at Great Ayton Friends' School in North Yorkshire, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois in the United States.

Career After a three-year stint as a schoolteacher in Scotland, Holden worked as a professional actor. He returned to North America, travelling as an odd-job man in the U.S. and Mexico. In 1955, he was recruited as an assistant correspondent in Washington, D.C. by The Times (London).

The following year, Holden transferred to the Middle East to cover the political and diplomatic crisis following the 1956 joint invasion of Egypt by Israel, France, and Britain.

As Middle East correspondent for The Times, he travelled throughout the Arab world for the next four years, then was named roving correspondent. In 1961 he joined The Guardian with the same wide brief. In 1965 he became chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times and was serving in that position at the time of his death.

In addition to his journalism, Holden wrote two books: Farewell to Arabia (1966) and Greece Without Columns (1972).

He began working on a third book, The House of Saud, about the Saudi royal family, in 1976. Before he could finish it, he was killed. The book was completed later by two other Middle-Eastern specialists, Richard Johns and James Buchan, both then with the Financial Times.

Murder When the peace talks were announced, Holden came off leave to attend them. He flew into Cairo several days early to cover the peace talks being initiated by Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, with Israel. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel had occupied the Egyptian province of Sinai. Sadat was acting independently from the rest of the Arab world.

Since 1971, Sadat had been reducing relations with the USSR and had closed the cultural centres of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. He called for a conference to be convened at Mena House in Cairo from 14 December onward, for the meetings which would bring Israeli officials and their entourages, including security personnel, officially into an Arab country for the first time.

Holden decided to pay a quick visit to Israel, which still had no diplomatic or commercial relations with any Arab country. He flew to Amman. As Time magazine reported: "Holden told friends in Amman that he was going to make a detour to Jerusalem on his way [back] to Cairo. 'Haven't been there for years,' he said. 'I guess they consider me public enemy No. 1'.

After Holden failed to contact his home office as agreed from the hotel where he had booked to stay, The Sunday Times became concerned. British officials finally discovered Holden's identity and claimed the body on 10 December.

He was killed with a single shot at close range.