Blue plaque unveiled for former war correspondent Martha Gellhorn

English Heritage honours journalist who reported on conflicts around the world, including Spain and Vietnam

English Heritage has unveiled a new blue plaque on the former home of American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who reported on conflicts ranging from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam.

Gellhorn, who came from a Jewish family and was married to the writer Ernest Hemingway, lived in a sparsely furnished top-floor flat on Cadogan Square for 28 years until, blighted by cancer and blindness, she took her own life there in 1998.

Among her many exploits, she was a stowaway aboard a France-bound military ship in 1944, which allowed her to covertly cover the Allied invasion, at a time when only men were allowed.

At the unveiling of the plaque this week, journalist John Simpson said: “This is where she dispensed wisdom, sharpness of understanding – and Famous Grouse whisky – to generations of writers and journalists who came to learn from one of the most perceptive observers of her time.”