The Viscount Northcliffe | |
|---|---|
 Photograph byGertrude Käsebier (1908) | |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
Lord Temporal | |
| In office 4 January 1906 – 14 August 1922 | |
| Preceded by | Peerage created |
| Succeeded by | Peerage extinct |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Alfred Charles William Harmsworth (1865-07-15)15 July 1865 Chapelizod,County Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 14 August 1922(1922-08-14) (aged 57) Carlton House Gardens, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 (illegitimate) |
| Parent(s) | Alfred Harmsworth Geraldine Maffett |
| Relatives | The 1st Baron Harmsworth (brother) The 1st Viscount Rothermere (brother) Sir Leicester Harmsworth (brother) Sir Hildebrand Harmsworth (brother) St John Harmsworth (brother) |
| Education | Stamford School |
| Occupation | Publisher |
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of theDaily Mail and theDaily Mirror, he was an early developer of popular journalism, and he exercised vast influence over British popular opinion during theEdwardian era.[1]Lord Beaverbrook said he was "the greatest figure who ever strode downFleet Street."[2] About the beginning of the 20th century there were increasing attempts to develop popular journalism intended for the working class and tending to emphasize sensational topics. Harmsworth was the main innovator.
Lord Northcliffe had a powerful role during theFirst World War, especially by criticizing the government regarding theShell Crisis of 1915. He directed a mission to the new ally, the United States, during 1917, and was director of enemy propaganda during 1918.
HisAmalgamated Press employed writers such asArthur Mee andJohn Hammerton, and its subsidiary, the Educational Book Company, publishedThe Harmsworth Self-Educator,The Children's Encyclopædia,Harmsworth Popular Science, andHarmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia. Challenging the dominance in popularity of the "penny dreadfuls" among British children, from the 1890s Harmsworthhalf-penny periodicals, such asIllustrated Chips, would enjoy a virtual monopoly of comics in the UK until the emergence ofDC Thomson comics in the 1930s.[3]
Born inChapelizod, County Dublin, the son ofAlfred andGeraldine Harmsworth, he was educated atStamford School inLincolnshire, England, from 1876 and at Henley House School inKilburn, London, from 1878.[4] A master at Henley House who was to prove important to his future was J. V. Milne, the father ofA. A. Milne, who according toH. G. Wells was at school with him at the time and encouraged Harmsworth to start the school magazine.[5] In 1880 he first visited theSylvan Debating Club, founded by his father, and of which he later served as Treasurer.
Beginning as a freelance journalist, he initiated his first newspaper,Answers (original title:Answers to Correspondents), and was later assisted by his brotherHarold, who was adept in business matters.[1] Harmsworth had an intuitive sense for what the reading public wanted to buy, and began a series of cheap but successful periodicals, such asComic Cuts (tagline: "Amusing without being Vulgar") and the journalForget-Me-Not for women. From these periodicals, he developed the largest periodical publishing company in the world,Amalgamated Press.[6] His half-penny periodicals published in the 1890s played a role in the decline of the Victorianpenny dreadfuls.[7]
Harmsworth was an early developer of popular journalism. He bought several failing newspapers and made them into an enormously profitable news group, primarily by appealing to the general public. He began withThe Evening News[1] during 1894, and then merged two Edinburgh papers to form theEdinburgh Daily Record. That same year he funded anexpedition toFranz Joseph Land in the Arctic with the intention of making attempts to travel to the North Pole.[8]
On 4 May 1896, he began publishing theDaily Mail in London,[1] which was a success, having the world record for daily circulation until Harmsworth's death; taglines of theDaily Mail included "the busy man's daily journal" and "the penny newspaper for one halfpenny". Prime MinisterRobert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, said it was "written by office boys for office boys".[9] Harmsworth then transformed a Sunday newspaper, theWeekly Dispatch, into theSunday Dispatch, then the greatest circulation Sunday newspaper in Britain. He also initiated theHarmsworth Magazine (laterLondon Magazine 1898–1915), utilizing one of Britain's best editors,Beckles Willson, who had been editor of many successful publications, includingThe Graphic.[10]
During 1899, Harmsworth was responsible for the unprecedented success of a charitable appeal for the dependents of soldiers fighting in theSouth African War by invitingRudyard Kipling andArthur Sullivan to write the song "The Absent-Minded Beggar".[11]
Harmsworth also initiatedThe Daily Mirror during 1903, and rescued the financially desperateThe Observer andThe Times during 1905 and 1908, respectively.[12] During 1908, he also acquiredThe Sunday Times. TheAmalgamated Press subsidiary theEducational Book Company published theHarmsworth Self-Educator,The Children's Encyclopædia, andHarmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia.[6] He brought his younger brothers into his media empire, and they all flourished:Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere,Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth,Sir Leicester Harmsworth, 1st Baronet, andSir Hildebrand Harmsworth, 1st Baronet.
Harmsworth was created aBaronet, of Elmwood, in the parish ofSt Peters in the County ofKent in 1904.[13] In 1906, Harmsworth was raised to thepeerage asBaron Northcliffe, of theIsle of Thanet in theCounty of Kent.[14] The peerage was requested by KingEdward VII, and was alleged to have been purchased.[15] It remains a matter of speculation. He is reported to have joked that when he wanted a peerage he would buy one, "like an honest man."[1] In 1918, Harmsworth was createdViscount Northcliffe, of St Peter's in the County of Kent, for his service as the director of the British war mission in the United States.[16]
Alfred Harmsworth marriedMary Elizabeth Milner on 11 April 1888. She was appointedDame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) andDame of Grace, Order of St John (D.St.J) during 1918. They did not have any children together.[17]
Lord Northcliffe had four acknowledged children by two different women. The first, Alfred Benjamin Smith, was born when Harmsworth was seventeen years old; the mother was a sixteen-year-old maidservant in his parents' home.[1][18] Smith died in 1930, allegedly in a mental hospital.[19] By 1900, Harmsworth had acquired a new mistress, an Irishwoman named Kathleen Wrohan, about whom little is known but her name; they had two further sons and a daughter, and she died in 1923.[20][1]
By 1914 Northcliffe controlled 40% of the morning newspaper circulation, 45% of the evening and 15% of the Sunday circulation in Britain.[21]
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Northcliffe's ownership ofThe Times, theDaily Mail and other newspapers meant that his editorials influenced both "the classes and the masses".[22] That meant that in an era before radio, television or internet, Northcliffe dominated the British press "as it never has been before or since by one man".[23]
Northcliffe's editorship of theDaily Mail in the years just before theFirst World War in which the newspaper displayed "a virulent anti-German sentiment"[1] causedThe Star to declare, "Next to the Kaiser, Lord Northcliffe has done more than any living man to bring about the war".[24] His newspapers, especiallyThe Times, reported theShell Crisis of 1915 with such zeal that it helped to end the Liberal government of Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith, which forced Asquith to form a coalition government (the other causal event was the resignation ofAdmiral Fisher asFirst Sea Lord). Northcliffe's newspapers propagandized for creating aMinister of Munitions, which was held first byDavid Lloyd George, and helped to bring about Lloyd George's appointment as prime minister in 1916. Lloyd George offered Northcliffe a job in his cabinet, but Northcliffe refused and was instead appointed director for propaganda.[6]
Northcliffe had used his newspapers to criticise the British government's lack of readiness for what he perceived to be the German threat. On 25 February 1917, a German warship shelled Northcliffe's country house Elmwood located near the Kent coast in an attempt to assassinate him.[25][26] His former residence still bears a shell hole out of respect for his gardener's wife, who was killed in the attack. On 6 April 1919, Lloyd George made an excoriating attack on Harmsworth, terming his arrogance "diseased vanity". By then, Harmsworth's influence was decreasing.
Northcliffe's enemies accused him of power without responsibility, but his papers were a factor in settling theAnglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, and his mission to the United States, from June through to October 1917, has been judged successful by historians.[27]
Northcliffe's personality shaped his career. He was monolingual and not well-educated and knew little history or science. He had a lust for power and for money, while leaving the accounting paperwork to his brother Harold. He imagined himself Napoleon reborn and resembled the emperor physically and in terms of his enormous energy and ambition. Above all, he had a boyish enthusiasm for everything.Norman Fyfe, an intimate friend, described him:
Boyish in his power of concentration upon the matter of the moment, boyish in his readiness to turn swiftly to a different matter and concentrate on that.... Boyish the limited range of his intellect, which seldom concerns itself with anything but the immediate, the obvious, the popular. Boyish his irresponsibility, his disinclination to take himself or his publications seriously; his conviction that whatever benefits them is justifiable, and that it is not his business to consider the effect of their contents on the public mind.[28]
In 1903 Harmsworth initiated theHarmsworth Cup, the first international award formotorboat racing.[29]
Harmsworth was a friend ofClaude Johnson, chief executive ofRolls-Royce Limited, and during the years preceding the First World war became an enthusiast of theRolls-Royce Silver Ghost car.[30]
Lord Northcliffe's health declined during 1921 due mainly to astreptococcal infection. His mental health collapsed; he acted like a madman but historians say it was a physical malady.[31] He went on a world tour to revive himself, but it failed to do so. He died ofendocarditis[1] in his London house, No. 1Carlton House Gardens, on 14 August 1922.[32] He left three months' pay to each of his six thousand employees. The viscountcy, barony, and baronetcy of Northcliffe became extinct.
A monument to Northcliffe atSt Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London, was unveiled in 1930. The obelisk was designed byEdwin Lutyens and the bronze bust is byKathleen Scott. His body was buried atEast Finchley Cemetery in North London.
Historian Ian Christopher Fletcher states:
Northcliffe's drive for success and respectability found its main outlet in the commercial world of journalism, not the political world the parties and parliaments. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, underlying the relentless acquisition of newspapers and perfection of their "copy", was the simple incorporation of millions of readers into his press empire.[33]
A. J. P. Taylor, however, says, "Northcliffe could destroy when he used the news properly. He could not step into the vacant place. He aspired to power instead of influence, and as a result forfeited both."[34]
P. P. Catterall andColin Seymour-Ure conclude that:
More than anyone [he] ... shaped the modern press. Developments he introduced or harnessed remain central: broad contents, exploitation of advertising revenue to subsidize prices, aggressive marketing, subordinate regional markets, independence from party control.[35]
According toPiers Brendon:
TheA. Harmsworth Glacier in North Greenland was named byRobert Peary in his honour. (Northcliffe had provided a ship for the expedition.)
Northcliffe lived for a time at 31 Pandora Road, West Hampstead; this site is now marked with an English Heritage blue plaque.
Northcliffe was the subject of a number of fictionalized portrayals. One of the earliest was the character of Mr. Whelpdale inGeorge Gissing's 1891 novelNew Grub Street. Whelpdale publishes a magazine calledChit-Chat (similar to Northcliffe'sAnswers), which is aimed at "the quarter-educated; that is to say the great new generation that is being turned out by the Board Schools, the young men and women who can just read, but are incapable of sustained attention".[37]
Arnold Bennett's 1909West End playWhat the Public Wants centers on Sir Charles Worgan, a profit-hungry media baron based on Northcliffe.J. B. Fagan's 1910 playThe Earth features a satirical version of Northcliffe, Sir Felix Janion, who uses sexual blackmail to prevent the passing of a bill which would provide a minimum wage for his employees.[37]
Throughout his newspaper career Northcliffe promoted the ideas which resulted in theGroup Settlement Scheme. The scheme promised land inWestern Australia to British settlers prepared to emigrate and develop the land. A town founded specifically to assist the new settlements was namedNorthcliffe, in recognition of Lord Northcliffe's promotion of the scheme.
Works by or aboutAlfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe atWikisource| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Viscount Northcliffe 1918–1922 | Extinct |
| Baron Northcliffe 1906–1922 Member of theHouse of Lords (1906–1922) | ||
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baronet of Elmwood 1904–1922 | Extinct |
| Preceded by |  Harmsworth baronets of Elmwood 23 August 1904 | Succeeded by |
