Peter Stursberg

Arthur Lewis Peter Stursberg, known as Peter Stursberg, (August 31, 1913 – August 31, 2014) was a Canadian writer and broadcaster. Life and career Stursberg was born in Yantai, China, the son of Mary Ellen (née Shaw) and Walter Arthur Stursberg, who was working for the Chinese postal service. His father was born in Canada to a German father from the Rhineland and an English mother, while his mother was born in China to an English father and a Japanese mother. At the age of seven, Stursberg's parents took him on a world tour before returning to China. At age 11 Stursberg was sent to a boarding school in England. Several years later his parents returned to Canada. He joined them and went on to graduate from West Hill High School in Montreal. He then took his British matriculation at Bedford School before returning to Montreal in 1930 to attend McGill University where he studied sciences and wrote for the McGill Daily. As a result of the Great Depression, Stursberg's parents suffered a reversal in their economic status and moved to a farm on Vancouver Island. Stursberg left university to follow them west and worked at a number of odd jobs including working in a logging camp, on farms and odd jobs. In 1934 Stursberg found a job as agricultural editor of the Victoria Daily Times. Curious about the situation in Europe, he embarked on a tour of the continent in 1938 visiting France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Soviet Union where he was briefly detained for a visa violation. He filed stories as a freelance reporter during his tour and was hired on the strength of these pieces as a war reporter for the London Daily Herald.