John (Derrick Mordaunt) Snagge

British broadcaster. He studied at Oxford, and joined the BBC as an assistant station director in 1924. He became an announcer in 1928, worked in outside broadcasts (1933–9), then held a series of senior posts in programme presentation, retiring from the BBC in 1965. He provided the commentary on the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race for half a century (1931–80). More than anyone else, his voice came to represent the traditional values of the BBC.

John Derrick Mordaunt Snagge OBE (8 May 1904 – 25 March 1996) was a long-time and well-known British newsreader and commentator on BBC Radio.

He joined the BBC in 1924 after graduating from Pembroke College, Oxford, taking up the position of Assistant Director at Stoke-on-Trent's newly-founded local radio station.

In 1928, Snagge was transferred to London to work as one of the BBC's main announcers alongside Stuart Hibberd.

At the start of World War II, Snagge was made the BBC's Presentation Director and thereafter delivered many important radio announcements as the war unfolded.

In the early 1950s, Snagge played a key role in the negotiations that led to the ground-breaking radio comedy series The Goon Show being commissioned by the BBC. Later, in the 1970s, he would echo his original wartime role by appearing as the Newsreader in the radio version of Dad's Army.

Snagge retired in 1965, but continued to provide commentaries for the Boat Race until 1980. Around this time he also appeared on Noel Edmonds' Radio 1 show on Sunday mornings, a role subsequently taken up by Brian Perkins.

John Snagge died in 1996, aged 91.