Richard Evans tells the intriguing tale of the assignment and struggle that changed journalist Philip Gibbs’ life
One morning in 1909, the Daily Chronicle reporter Philip Gibbs was handed his marching orders by his editor, Ernest Perris. He was to set off on an assignment that would change the course of his life. Perris told Gibbs to collect a bag of gold coins for expenses, pack the razor and toothbrush he kept at the office and leave immediately for Copenhagen, where explorer Frederick Cook was due to arrive.
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There had been no word from Cook for more than a year. Then, in September 1909, a telegram from the US adventurer arrived, in which he claimed to be the first person to have reached the North Pole. Gibbs interviewed Cook in Copenhagen, armed with questions posed by members of explorers’ and geological groups in Britain. Gibbs left the meeting troubled by nagging doubts. He decided to put his journalistic career on the line by saying he thought Cook might be lying. Richard Evans narrates the intriguing tale of Gibbs’s struggle to expose the man he considered a fraud.
The explorer nervously explained that he had taken a series of observations on his way to the North Pole that would prove his claim, but had given his diary to a man to take to New York. Gibbs published an article casting doubt on the veracity of Cook’s claim, which didn’t sit well with his fellow journalists, who showered Cook with accolades.
Few people in history have seen such dramatic changes to their reputation in so short a time as did Cook. He had started as a little-known explorer before suddenly becoming one of the world’s great heroes. Yet he soon found himself reviled as the perpetrator of a colossal lie. The Explorers’ Club announced it had revoked his membership and Cook was expelled by the Arctic Club of America. Even the New York Times denounced him as ‘one of the boldest fakers the world has ever known’.
Gibbs eventually emerged from the scandal smelling of roses. His suspicions had been vindicated and despite some rough and tumble times in his career, he became a widely read author and was awarded a knighthood for his front-line reporting during the First World War.
