Jon Snow (journalist)

Jonathan George Snow (born 28 September 1947) is an English journalist and television presenter. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he presented from 1989 to 2021. On 29 April 2021, Snow announced his retirement from the role; his final programme aired on 23 December 2021. Although Channel 4's news programming is produced by ITN, Snow was employed directly by the broadcaster.

Snow has held numerous honorary appointments, including Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.

Early life and education

Snow was born in Ardingly, Sussex, the son of George D'Oyly Snow, Bishop of Whitby, and Joan, a pianist who studied at the Royal College of Music. He is a grandson of First World War General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow (about whom he writes in his foreword to Ronald Skirth's war memoir The Reluctant Tommy) and is the cousin of retired BBC television news presenter Peter Snow. He grew up at Ardingly College, where his father was headmaster. In 2013, he recounted how the inquiry into Sir Jimmy Savile had allowed him to re-evaluate his own childhood, having been molested by one of the college's domestic staff when he was aged six.

Snow was awarded a choral scholarship by Winchester Cathedral. He spent five years at the Pilgrims' School, which educates the choristers of Winchester Cathedral Choir. He subsequently attended St Edward's School in Oxford. When he was 18, he spent a year as a VSO volunteer teaching in Uganda.