David Smeeton

David Smeeton (16 September 1936 – 15 January 2020) was an English journalist. He began his career as a reporter for the Western Morning News and then joined BBC South West as a regional reporter. Smeeton became a general news reporter for BBC London in 1963, was promoted to education reporter and then became the BBC's first education correspondent in 1968. He was BBC News's home affairs correspondent in 1970 and was appointed the corporation's Tokyo correspondent in 1973. Smeeton was the education and local government correspondent from 1978 and was the BBC's correspondent in Bonn, West Germany between 1981 and 1986 before becoming the west of England correspondent for BBC South West between 1986 and 1994.

Early life Smeeton was born into a naval family on 16 September 1936 in Gillingham, Kent. He was the only son of the school matron Enid Mona and the naval officer Donald Edward Smeeton. He had two uncles who were vice-admirals: Ronald Brockman, a wartime secretary to Lord Mountbatten, the First Sea Lord, and Richard Smeeton, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic during the Cold War. Smeeton was the education and local government correspondent from 1978 to 1981. He retired from the BBC in 1994, He died of cancer at his home in Western Australia on 15 January 2020. A celebration of Smeeton's life took place in Mandurah on 29 January 2020.