Sir William Mark Tully was the Chief of Bureau for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi for 22 years. Schooled in England, he stayed mostly in India covering all major incidents in South Asia during his tenure.

He was made an Officer of The Order of the British Empire in 1985 and was awarded the Padma Shree in 1992, a rare distinction for a non-Indian. He was knighted in the 2002 New Year Honours. In 2005 he received the Padma Bhushan.
 

Mark Tully was born in Kolkata in 1935 and educated in India and England. He joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1964 and moved to India as the BBC’s India correspondent the following year. He covered all the major events in South Asia for thirty years, until he resigned from the BBC in 1994. Since 1994 he has been a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in New Delhi. He has published several books on South Asia, among them, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle (with Satish Jacob); Raj to Rajiv: 40 Years of Indian Independence (with Zareer Masani); No Full Stops in India; India in Slow Motion (with Gillian Wright); Non-stop India; and a collection of short stories, The Heart of India.

Mark Tully was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1992 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005. He was knighted and received a KBE, in 2002.