 Front page of the first edition | |
| Type | Daily (afternoons) |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | G. Smith (1865–80) H. Thompson (1880–92) W. Astor (1892–1915) H. Dalziel (1916–23) |
| Founded | 7 February 1865 |
| Ceased publication | 1923 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | London |
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded inLondon on 7 February 1865 byGeorge Murray Smith; its first editor wasFrederick Greenwood. In 1921,The Globe merged intoThe Pall Mall Gazette, which itself was absorbed intoThe Evening Standard in 1923.
Beginning late in 1868 and continuing at least through the 1880s, a selection or digest of its contents was published as the weeklyPall Mall Budget.
The Pall Mall Gazette took the name of a fictional newspaper conceived byW. M. Thackeray.Pall Mall is a street in London where manygentlemen's clubs are located, hence Thackeray's description of this imaginary newspaper in his novelThe History of Pendennis (1848–1850):
We address ourselves to the higher circles of society: we care not to disown it—The Pall Mall Gazette is written by gentlemen for gentlemen; its conductors speak to the classes in which they live and were born. The field-preacher has his journal, the radical free-thinker has his journal: why should the Gentlemen of England be unrepresented in the Press?
Under the ownership of George Smith ofSmith, Elder & Co. from 1865 to 1880, with Frederick Greenwood as editor,The Pall Mall Gazette was aConservative newspaper. Greenwood resigned in 1880, when the paper's new owner (Smith's new son-in-law,Henry Thompson) wished for it to support the policies of theLiberal Party.[1] Taking all the staff with him, Greenwood became the editor of the newly-foundedSt James's Gazette and maintained his advocacy of Conservative policy.[2][3] The first editor under Thompson's ownership wasJohn Morley (later Viscount Morley), withW. T. Stead as assistant editor. Morley resigned in 1883 to go into politics.[4]
Stead's editorship from 1883 to 1889 saw the paper cover such subjects aschild prostitution; his campaign compelled the government to increase theage of consent from 13 to 16 in 1885. This was one of the first examples ofinvestigative journalism, and Stead was arrested for "unlawful taking of a child" (when he purchased thirteen-year-oldEliza Armstrong from her mother for the meagre price of£5, to highlight how easy it was to buy children). The affair distressed Thompson, who dismissed Stead and hired the handsome society figureHenry Cust to replace him. Editor from 1892 to 1896, Cust returned the paper to its Conservative beginnings.
Thompson sold the paper toWilliam Waldorf Astor in 1896. SirDouglas Straight was editor until 1909, followed by F. J. Higginbottom, under whom the paper declined. Circulation doubled between 1911–15 under the editorJames Louis Garvin, but the paper declined once more under its last editor D. L. Sutherland. It was absorbed into theEvening Standard in 1923.[5]
Several well-known writers contributed toThe Pall Mall Gazette over the years.George Bernard Shaw gained his first job in journalism writing for the paper. Other contributors includedAnthony Trollope,Friedrich Engels,Oscar Wilde,Robert Louis Stevenson,Charles Whibley, SirSpencer Walpole,Arthur Patchett Martin,[6] and Jamaican-born writerEneas Sweetland Dallas.
TheBritish Weekly, "one of the most successful religious newspapers of its time", followed stylistically in the footsteps of thePall Mall Gazette, "including interviews of prominent personalities, use of line illustrations and photographs, special supplements, investigative reporting, sensationalist headlines, and serialised debates".[7]
Many works of fiction refer toThe Pall Mall Gazette. For example:
| Editor's name | Years |
|---|---|
| Frederick Greenwood | 1865–1880 |
| John Morley[4] | 1880–1883 |
| William Thomas Stead | 1883–1889 |
| Edward Tyas Cook | 1890–1892 |
| Henry Cust | 1892–1896 |
| Douglas Straight[9] | 1896–1909 |
| Frederick Higginbottom | 1909–1912 |
| James Louis Garvin | 1912–1915 |
| D. M. Sutherland | 1915–1923 |
| Active |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defunct |
| ||||
