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 ALondon Gazette reprint of its front page from 3–10 September 1666, reporting on theGreat Fire of London | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Founded | 7 November 1665 (359 years ago) (1665-11-07) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Website | thegazette |
The London Gazette, known generally asThe Gazette,[1] is one of the officialjournals of record orgovernment gazettes of theGovernment of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published.
Other official newspapers of the UK government areThe Edinburgh Gazette andThe Belfast Gazette, which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published inThe London Gazette, also contain publications specific toScotland andNorthern Ireland, respectively. In turn,The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published inThe London Gazette.
TheLondon,Edinburgh andBelfast Gazettes are published byThe Stationery Office (TSO) on behalf ofHis Majesty's Stationery Office. They are subject toCrown copyright.
The London Gazette claims to be the oldest survivingEnglish newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 asThe Oxford Gazette.[2][3] The claim to being oldest is also made by theStamford Mercury (1712) andBerrow's Worcester Journal (1690).[4][5]
The London Gazette is published each weekday, except forbank holidays. Notices for the following, among others, are published:
His Majesty's Stationery Office has digitised all issues ofThe Gazette, and these are available online.[6]
The official Gazettes are published byThe Stationery Office. The content is available in a number ofmachine-readable formats, includingXML (delivery by email/FTP) and XML/RDFa viaAtom feed.[7]
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The London Gazette was first published asThe Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665.Charles II and the Royal Court had moved toOxford to escape theGreat Plague of London, andcourtiers were unwilling to touch London newspapers for fear of contagion. TheGazette was "Published by Authority" byHenry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted bySamuel Pepys in hisdiary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and theGazette moved too, with the first issue ofThe London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on 5 February 1666.[8] TheGazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public.[9]
His Majesty's Stationery Office took over the publication of theGazette in 1889. Publication of theGazette was transferred to the private sector in 2006, under government supervision, when HMSO was sold and renamedThe Stationery Office.[10] All content is available under theOpen Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated.[1]
Until theCalendar (New Style) Act 1750 came into effect on 1 January 1752 (N.S.), theGazette was published with a date based on theJulian calendar with the start of year as 25 March. (Modern secondary sources may adjust the start of the calendar year during this period to 1 January, while retaining the original day and month. Using this adjustment, an issue with a printed date of 24 March 1723 (O.S.) will be reported as being published in 1724 – the samesolar year as an issue published two days later, on 26 March 1724.)
In time of war, dispatches from the various conflicts are published inThe London Gazette. Soldiers who arementioned in despatches will also be named in the Gazette. When members of the armed forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here, the person is said to have been "gazetted".
Being "gazetted" (or "in the gazette") also meant having official notice of one's bankruptcy published,[11] as in the classic ten-line poem comparing the stolid tenant farmer of 1722 to the lavishly spending faux-genteel farmers of 1822:[12]
Notices of engagement and marriage were also formerly published in theGazette.
Gazettes, modelled onThe London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions.[citation needed] Many of these continued after independence, and to the present day.
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