The Morning Post

"Morning Post" redirects here. For other newspapers, see Morning Post (disambiguation).

The Morning Post was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.

History

The paper was founded by John Bell. Originally a Whig paper, it was purchased by Daniel Stuart in 1795, who made it into a moderate Tory organ.[1] A number of well-known writers contributed, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, James Mackintosh, Robert Southey, and William Wordsworth.[1] In the seven years of Stuart's proprietorship, the paper's circulation rose from 350 to over 4,000.[1]

From 1803 until his death in 1833, the owner and editor of the Post was Nicholas Byrne;[2] his son William Pitt Byrne later held these roles.[3]

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.[1]

With the aid of Andrew Montagu, Borthwick purchased the Post in 1876.[1] 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.[1] 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.[4]

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).[5] Also Harold Williams (linguist) started to write from Russia.

Howell Arthur Gwynne took over as editor in 1911.

The paper invited the ire of the Liberals in 1919 when it organised a collection for a purse of £18,000 to be presented to Reginald Dyer, the general of the Amritsar massacre for his services to the British Empire on his return to Britain.

The Cause of World Unrest

The paper gained notoriety in 1920 when it ran a series of 17 or 18 articles based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, text previously published in Russian by Sergei Nilus as the last chapter, Chapter XII, of Velikoe v malom... (The Great in the Small: The Coming of the Anti-Christ and the Rule of Satan on Earth). It is still widely held that Victor E. Marsden, the paper's Russian desk correspondent, used the copy of this rare book retained by the British Museum to translate this last chapter for the paper. Some have questioned this because the anonymous 1923 publication crediting Marsden as the translator in the pamphlet's preface occurred three years after Marsden's death on October 28, 1920.

These articles were subsequently collected and formed the basis of the book, The Cause of World Unrest, to which half the paper's staff contributed, mainly George Shanks; also Nesta H. Webster. But main credit for the compilation was given to the paper's editor, Gwynne. The book further denounced international Jewry and cultural and social dissolution among the Christian Nations.

Final years

The Bathursts sold the paper to a consortium headed by the Duke of Northumberland in 1924. 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.[6]

Editors

1848: Peter Borthwick
1852: Algernon Borthwick
1905: Spenser Wilkinson
1905: Fabian Ware
1911: Howell Arthur Gwynne

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 A.W Ward and A.R. Waller (editors). "IV. The Growth of Journalism: The Stuarts and The Morning Post". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). bartleby.com. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. ↑ "Charlotte Dacre c. 1772-1825?". enotes.com. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  3. ↑ "Drinking Water Fountain, Bryanston Square: erected in the memory of the late William Pitt Byrne, M.A.". The Builder. 21: 653–654. September 12, 1863. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  4. ↑ Norris, R. (1981). "Deakin, Alfred (1856 - 1919)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  5. ↑ Mosley, Charles. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage (Vol. 3), p. 3324;
    Lundy, Darryl (7 May 2011). "Major Hon. Maurice Baring". The Peerage. Ngaio, Wellington: Lundy Consulting Ltd.
    Baring, Maurice. (1906). With the Russians in Manchuria, p. vi.
  6. ↑ "Iliffe, Berry, Hulton: the Berrys". Ketupa.net. Retrieved 30 May 2012.

References

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