Christopher Derek Ive, 84, a veteran British photographer and foreign correspondent passed away in Madrid on Christmas Eve. He is survived by his wife, Concha, and only son, Alexander.
Educated in Marlborough College in the UK, Derek started his career working for a local newspaper in the English Midlands before enlisting in the Parachute Regiment for his National Service, serving in the Cyprus Emergency and as King Hussein of Jordan’s personal bodyguard at the time of his accession.
Upon his return to his native London, he rapidly became a leading reporter in the gilded age of Fleet Street, landing front page stories in major newspapers of the time such as The Daily Herald and The People.
He moved to Barcelona in the late 50s where he set up a press agency with his close friend and associate Roy Rutter. Their exploits in the depths of Spain’s Francoist dictatorship, soon became a long-running legend among visiting British and American journalists in what would eventually become his country of adoption.
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Derek spent some of his best years working as a correspondent in New York. He toured the United States in 1968 with the Bee Gees, chased down known fugitives, infiltrated the Mafia and the Church of Scientology and befriended Muhammad Ali among many other personalities of that era.
Following an extended stint living on a farm in Chiapas (Mexico), he returned to Spain again as an Associated Press photographer, documenting Spain’s turbulent transition to democracy while simultaneously covering some of the most significant events of the second half of the 20th century.
Consistently shying away from the limelight, Derek belonged to that rare breed of journalists who believed his role was behind the camera rather than in front of it. As a frontline reporter, he never wavered in putting himself in harm’s way for the sake of his profession.
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He provided the English-speaking world with unique graphic coverage of some of the most significant events of the second half of the 20th century. These included Iran’s Islamic revolution and ensuing hostage crisis, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt’s assassination as well as the Algerian and Lebanese civil wars. In the latter he nearly lost his life injured by cluster bomb munitions during the Israeli intervention in that conflict.
Derek was known to his colleagues and friends for his charisma, adventurous disposition and sense of humour. Many times, his extended Spanish family tried to convince him to write his memoirs, an idea he would always dismiss as narcissistic.
Throughout his life, Derek retained a very British love of nature, retiring to the mountains of north Madrid, where he had built a family home and was fondly known by local villagers as “the Englishman who plants trees” on the region’s barren hillsides.
His family stayed at his side and cared for him until the end, as his memories were slowly stripped away from him by Alzheimer’s, the cruellest of diseases that could befall him. His memory is forever cherished and honoured by all those who knew him.
- Christopher Derek Ive (1938 – 2022)
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