Carpenter, Iris (b. 1906)
Carpenter, Iris (b. 1906)
British journalist and war correspondent. Name variations: Iris Carpenter Akers. Born in England in 1906; dau. of a cinema entrepreneur; m. Charles Scruby (wealthy developer); m. Russell F. Akers Jr. (American colonel), 1946; children: (1st m.) 1 son, 1 daughter.
One of the few women to report the Allied invasion of Europe from D-Day in June 1944 to the surrender of Germany in May 1945, landed 1st writing job as a film critic for a British publication, The Picture Show (1924), then signed on with London's Daily Express; though she retired from journalism to raise a family (1933), was motivated by the start of WWII to return to the profession; reported on the conflict in several roles, including as a broadcaster for the BBC as well as a print reporter for both Daily Express and Daily Herald; facing strong discrimination by British military authorities and determined to be a combat reporter, was hired by the Boston Globe and accredited with the 1st American Army; her reports from the front lines and hospitals in France and Germany described in graphic prose some of the bloodiest fighting on the Western front, including the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Nazi concentration camps; remained in US, working for Voice of America.
See also memoir No Woman's World (Houghton, 1946); and Women in World History.