John Everingham

John Everingham (born 1949 in Australia) is an Australian journalist residing in Thailand.

Everingham was in high school in 1966 when the urge to travel overcame the desire to study. He dropped out of school and left home at 16 years old, and left Australia on the traditional journey to London, but by motorcycle. Everingham began his career in photojournalism in the mid-1960s, as a teenager trekking through Indochina and learning languages. He originally worked as a translator for TV crews covering the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam War he received acclaim from the mainstream media, and disdain from the American military, for his reporting on and photos of the effects American bombing of hilltribe villages in the remote mountains of Laos. Some of the planes were based in Udon Thani, Thailand. Laos became the most heavily bombed country in the world during the 'secrete war' run by the CIA. Everingham published a story with graphic photos of bombed out villages in the Washington Monthly, a story that helped break open the secrecy surrounding the war in Laos and shed light on the innocent rural Lao and Hmong hilltribes being killed.

Everingham gained international fame when he sought asylum for his Laotian wife, Keo Sirisomphone, by swimming her out of Laos under the Mekong River near Vientiane using scuba equipment. Though successful in getting Keo out of Laos safely, he was arrested back on the Thai side of the Mekong and jailed for bringing an illegal into the country. The then Prime Minister signed a pardon for him, allowing Everingham to remain in Thailand. The story was turned into a TV movie starring Michael Landon,[1] called Love is Forever, (USA release) and Comeback, (international release) [2] based on a screenplay by Director/Producer, Hall Bartlett.

In 1983, Everingham was the contact to Cork Graham for Capt. Kidd Treasure Hunter Richard Knight. [3]

John Everingham was the founder and managing director of Artasia Press, a publisher of English language magazines in Thailand between 1985 and 2007. The publications included Phuket Magazine, Fah Thai (in-flight magazine which Everingham began for Bangkok Airways), SAMUI Guide, PHUKET Guide, SEA Yachting and Asia-Pacific TROPICAL HOMES. Financial problems following the tsunami of 2004 forced the sale of Artasia's publications to Singapore-based Dragon Group. Within two years of the takeover by Dragon Art Media most of the magazines had closed.

A professional biography showing much of Everingham's work as a professional photographer can be seen at johneveringham.wordpress.com

Family

John and Keosiri Everingham have two children: Ananda Mathew Everingham, born 1982 in Bangkok and Chester Jay Everingham, born 1986 in Bangkok. Ananda is a well-known Thai-Australian actor Ananda Everingham. John and Keosiri separated in 1995 and divorced some years later. John later married Wei Liang Yu, a Chinese citizen from Kunming. They have a son Zennith Lee Everingham born in Bangkok in 2006.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Love Is Forever at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ↑ The Saga of John Everingham
  3. ↑ The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War, pp. 5, 12-18, 22, 27 Re Richard Knight]
  4. ↑ by John Everingham, Aug 2015
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