The Morning Post
The Morning Post was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph .
The Morning Post was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph .
The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, The Morning Post scandal sheet consisted of paragraph-long news snippets, much of it false. [1] Its original editor, the Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley, earned himself nicknames such as "Reverend Bruiser" or "The Fighting Parson", [2] and was soon replaced by an even more vitriolic editor, Reverend William Jackson, also known as "Dr. Viper". [1]
Originally a Whig paper, it was purchased by Daniel Stuart in 1795, who made it into a moderate Tory organ. [3] A number of well-known writers contributed, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, James Mackintosh, Robert Southey, and William Wordsworth. [3] In the seven years of Stuart's proprietorship, the paper's circulation rose from 350 to over 4,000. [3]
From 1803 until his death in 1833, the owner and editor of the Post was Nicholas Byrne; [4] his son William Pitt Byrne later held these roles. [5]
Later the paper was acquired by a Lancashire papermaker named Crompton. In 1848 he hired Peter Borthwick, a Scot who had been a Conservative MP for Evesham (1835–1847), as editor. When Peter died in 1852, his son Algernon took over. During the 1850s, the Post was very closely associated with the Palmerston ministry. [3]
With the aid of Andrew Montagu, Borthwick purchased the Post in 1876. [3] His son Oliver (1873–1905) was business manager and editor, but died young, and upon the father's death in 1908 control went to his daughter Lilias Borthwick (1871–1965), wife of Seymour Henry Bathurst, 7th Earl Bathurst (1864–1943). In 1881, the paper appointed the first woman war correspondent when it sent Lady Florence Dixie to South Africa to cover the First Boer War.
The paper was noted for its attentions to the activities of the powerful and wealthy, its interest in foreign affairs, and in literary and artistic events. It began regular printing of notices of plays, concerts, and operas in the early 20th century, and is said to have been the first daily paper in London to do this. [3] Arthur Hervey (1855–1922) was the paper's music critic between 1892 and 1908.
Beginning in 1900, the Australian politician Alfred Deakin wrote anonymous commentaries on Australian politics for the paper, continuing even when he had become Prime Minister. [6]
Maurice Baring was a foreign correspondent for the paper, reporting from Manchuria, Russia and Constantinople between 1904 and 1909. He was war correspondent with Russian forces during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). [7] Also, Harold Williams started to write from Russia.
Howell Arthur Gwynne took over as editor in 1911.
Upon General Reginald Dyer's return to India in 1920, after his role in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, [8] the Morning Post collected and presented £26,317 to him, along with a golden sword and the title "Defender of the Empire" and "the man who saved India". The editor of the Morning Post had received waves of letters containing contributions. [9] The Morning Post received criticism during the sittings of the Hunter commission investigating the massacre as not being impartial. [10]
The paper gained notoriety in 1920, after it ran a series of 17 or 18 articles based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , a text previously published in Russian by Sergei Nilus as the final chapter (Chapter XII), of his book Velikoye v malom i antikhrist kak blizkaya politicheskaya vozmozhnost'. Zapiski pravoslavnogo veruyushchego ("The Great within the Small and Antichrist, an Imminent Political Possibility. Notes of an Orthodox Believer"). It is widely held that Victor E. Marsden, the paper's Russian desk correspondent, used the copy of this rare book in the British Museum to translate the last chapter for the paper. Some have questioned that because the anonymous 1923 pamphlet crediting Marsden as the translator in its preface appeared three years after Marsden's death on 28 October 1920.[ citation needed ]
The articles were subsequently collected and formed the basis of the book The Cause of World Unrest , to which half the paper's staff contributed, as well as George Shanks and Nesta Webster. However, credit for the compilation was ascribed principally to the paper's editor, H.A. Gwynne. The book further denounced international Jewry, and cultural and social dissolution in the Christian nations.
The Bathursts sold the paper to a consortium headed by the Duke of Northumberland in 1924. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, it was one of the few newspapers in Europe to immediately recognize that Nazi Germany would try to "seek a solution to difficulties at home with adventures abroad." [11] In 1937, the Morning Post was sold to the Daily Telegraph , which was owned by William Berry. The Post did not remain a separate title, and it was absorbed into the Telegraph. [12]
The Morning Star is a left-wing British daily newspaper with a focus on social, political and trade union issues. Originally founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), ownership was transferred from the CPGB to an independent readers' co-operative in 1945 and later renamed the Morning Star in 1966. The paper describes its editorial stance as in line with Britain's Road to Socialism, the programme of the Communist Party of Britain.
Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, CB was an officer of the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted British Indian Army. His military career began in the regular British Army but he soon transferred to the Presidency armies of India. As a temporary brigadier-general, he was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that took place on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar. He has been called "the Butcher of Amritsar", because of his order to fire on a peaceful crowd. The official report stated that this resulted in the killing of at least 379 people and the injuring of over a thousand more. Some submissions to the official inquiry suggested a higher number of deaths.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the Belleville News-Democrat, Alton Telegraph, and Edwardsville Intelligencer. The publication has received 19 Pulitzer Prizes.
Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk JP, known as Sir Algernon Borthwick, Bt, between 1887 and 1895, was a British journalist and Conservative politician. He was the owner of the Morning Post.
William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose DL was a British peer and newspaper publisher.
The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the largest publishing company in the world, AP employed writers such as Arthur Mee, John Alexander Hammerton, Edwy Searles Brooks, and Charles Hamilton. Its subsidiary, the Educational Book Company, published The Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Children's Encyclopædia, and Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia. The company's newspapers included the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Evening News, The Observer, and The Times. At its height, AP published over 70 magazines and operated three large printing works and paper mills in South London.
Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home was a Scottish journalist who served as editor of The Times from 1982 until his death.
Major-General Sir Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware was a British educator, journalist, and the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). He also served as Director of Education for the Transvaal Colony and editor of The Morning Post.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large, peaceful crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, to protest against the Rowlatt Act and arrest of pro-independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal. In response to the public gathering, the temporary brigadier general R. E. H. Dyer, surrounded the protesters with his Gurkha, Baloch, Rajput and Sikh troops from 2-9th Gurkhas, the 54th Sikhs and the 59th Scinde Rifles of the British Indian Army. The Jallianwala Bagh could only be exited on one side, as its other three sides were enclosed by buildings. After blocking the exit with his troops, he ordered them to shoot at the crowd, continuing to fire even as the protestors tried to flee. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was exhausted. Estimates of those killed vary from 379 to 1,500 or more people and over 1,200 other people were injured of whom 192 were seriously injured. Britain has never formally apologised for the massacre but expressed "deep regret" in 2019.
George Shanks (1896–1957) was an expatriate Briton born in Moscow and was the first translator of Protocols of Zion from Russian into English. He was also a founding member of Radio Normandy. George Shanks was the son of Henry Shanks, a well-known British merchant who resided in Moscow. Henry Shanks managed the family firm of Shanks & Bolin, Magasin Anglais established by his father James Steuart Shanks in 1852. As a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family lost their business and home and were forced to return to London. It is believed that the translation was completed during this period in London. His identity was not discovered until 1978; initially, it was believed that Victor E. Marsden was the translator, as his name came to be associated with the British English language translation of the Protocols in pamphlet or booklet form soon after he died in 1920.
Howell Arthur Keir Gwynne, CH was a Welsh author, newspaper editor of the London Morning Post from 1911 to 1937.
Seymour Henry Bathurst, 7th Earl Bathurst, CMG, TD, JP, DL was a British nobleman, soldier and newspaper owner.
The Honourable Sir William Gervase Beckett, 1st Baronet, born William Gervase Beckett-Denison, was a British banker and Conservative politician.
Peter Borthwick was a British Conservative Party politician and newspaper editor.
Byron Darnton was an American reporter and war correspondent for The New York Times in the Pacific theater during World War II.
The Owl: a Wednesday journal of politics and society was a satirical society newspaper published in London from 1864 to 1870. Irregularly published, but sometimes fortnightly, it cost 6d., was Tory in politics and consisted of a mix of satire and London society gossip.
Maria Theresa Lewis was a British writer and biographer.
Lilias Margaret Frances, Countess Bathurst was a British newspaper publisher who owned The Morning Post. Her father, Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk, owned the paper and passed control to her upon his death in 1908. She led the paper as the only female owner of a major newspaper in the world, reorienting it to focus on political and diplomatic affairs. Lady Bathurst herself was an anti-feminist, supporting movements against women's suffrage.
