Tributes to war reporter Colvin at London service

YAHOO! NEWS Wed, 16 May, 2012
A handout picture obtained in London on February 22, 2012, from British newspaper …

War reporter Marie Colvin was described as the "bravest of the brave" at a memorial service in London on Wednesday for the Sunday Times journalist who was killed while covering the conflict in Syria.

The packed congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square heard Sunday Times editor John Witherow describe the American correspondent as the "greatest war correspondent of her generation".

"Marie inspired love, affection and respect wherever she went. She had a gift of friendship and she nurtured many friends with as much love as she cared for her journalism," he said.

"She always seemed to have unlimited time for young journalists at the outset of their careers and so we will be setting up a Marie Colvin scholarship in her honour."

He added: "Everyone here knows we have lost someone unbelievably special and our lives are poorer for not being able to see that smile, hear that throaty laugh and simply enjoy the company of a remarkable woman who was the greatest war correspondent of her generation."

Colvin, who was 56, was killed along with French photographer Remi Ochlik on February 22 when the building that served as a makeshift media centre in the Syrian city of Homs was struck by a Syrian army mortar.

Her mother Rosemarie and sister Cat made the journey from the United States to attend the service, while Foreign Secretary William Hague and his predecessor David Miliband were among the high-profile congregation.

Journalist colleagues also paid tribute to Colvin, who had covered many of the bloodiest conflicts of the past 30 years and wore a black eye-patch after losing an eye in a grenade explosion while covering the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2001.

Veteran BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet, who had worked with Colvin in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Libya, said: "The bravest of the brave was also the kindest of the kind.

"Marie never thought of gender when it came to the way she reported and the way she travelled.

"She worked with the best of the veterans in this business, the most talented and the young, both women and men."