Daniel Francis Jeroen van der Vat (born 28 October 1939, Alkmaar

Alkmaar

Alkmaar is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of Noord Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination.-History:...

, North Holland

North Holland

North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...

) is a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and military historian, with a focus on naval history

Naval history

Naval history is the area of military history concerning war at sea and the subject is also a sub-discipline of the broad field of maritime history....

. Van der Vat grew up in Nazi-German occupied Holland

The Netherlands in World War II

The history of the Netherlands from 1939 to 1945 covers the events in the Netherlands that took place under the German occupation that started on May 10, 1940 with the Battle of the Netherlands. The Netherlands hoped to stay neutral when World War II broke out in 1939 but this failed to happen when...

. He went to the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School is a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided comprehensive school in Holland Park, Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. And formerly one of several Selective Catholic Schools in England....

 in London, and then was a student at St Cuthbert's Society

St Cuthbert's Society

St Cuthbert's Society, colloquially known as Cuth's, is one of sixteen collegiate bodies within the University of Durham. It was founded in 1888 for students who were not attached to the existing colleges...

, Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 from 1957 to 1960, graduating with a BA in Classics.

He then became a graduate trainee on The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne, later joining the Daily Mail in Manchester and returning to Newcastle as its regional chief reporter. He was recruited by The Sunday Times in 1965 and transferred to The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

in 1967. He was a foreign correspondent for ten years, opening the southern Africa bureau before becoming bureau chief in Germany. He left when Murdoch arrived in 1981 and joined The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

in 1982 as chief foreign leader-writer. He still writes obituaries for The Guardian.