In pictures: Sir Charles Wheeler

Sir Charles Wheeler, the veteran BBC reporter who has died at the age of 85 after suffering from lung cancer, was one of the most respected and distinguished journalists of his generation.

Born Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler in March 1923, he began his journalistic career on the old Daily Sketch newspaper. After the war he joined the BBC, working first for the World Service.

After working extensively in eastern Europe and South East Asia, he was posted to the United States. Here he is shown reporting on the Watts race riots that took place in Los Angeles in 1965.

While based in Washington, Wheeler covered such stories as the assassination of Martin Luther King, the shooting of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and the Watergate scandal.

He would later return to London to present Panorama but admitted he felt uncomfortable standing in front of a camera, preferring to be out in the field rather than be stuck in the studio.

When the BBC's Newsnight was launched in 1980, Wheeler became its senior correspondent. Here he is seen with his fellow presenters Peter Snow (left) and David Davies (centre).

Wheeler's 1989 series The Road to War traced events leading up to WWII from the different standpoints of the primary participants. He went on to present Charles Wheeler's America in 1996.

Wheeler's moving coverage of the persecution of Kurdish refugees by Saddam Hussein in 1991 was testament to his profound sympathy for the underdog.

In his 1995 documentary Burma: The Forgotten War, he encouraged WWII veterans like Richard Rhodes James (right) to revisit the places where they fought and tell their stories.

In 2004 Wheeler, who served with the Royal Marines during the war, returned to the Normandy beaches to report on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The veteran journalist was knighted in 2006.