The ''St James's Gazette'' was a London evening newspaper published from 1880 to 1905. It was founded by the Conservative Henry Hucks Gibbs, later Baron Aldenham, a director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...

1853–1901 and its governor 1875–1877; the paper's first editor was Frederick Greenwood, previously the editor of the Conservative-leaning '' Pall Mall Gazette''. The ''St James's Gazette'' was bought by Edward Steinkopff, founder of the Apollinaris mineral water company, in 1888. Greenwood left, to be succeeded by

Sidney Low Sir Sidney James Mark Low (22 January 1857 – 14 January 1932) was a British journalist, historian, and essayist. Biography Low was born to Jewish parents Therese (née Schacherl; 1835–1887) and Maximillian Loewe (1830–1900), who emigrated ...

(1888–1897), Hugh Chisholm (1897–1899) and Ronald McNeill (1900–1904). Steinkopff sold the paper to C. Arthur Pearson in 1903, who merged it with the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' in March 1905, ending the paper's daily publication. A weekly digest of the paper, the ''St James's Budget'', appeared from 3 July 1880 until 3 February 1911.

History

Background

The ''St James's Gazette'' was founded in 1880 out of the '' Pall Mall Gazette'', which was (in the phrase of

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellect ...

, the father of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

) "the most thorough-going of Jingo newspapers." The ''Pall Mall'' was owned by George Smith of Smith, Elder & Co., who founded the world-famous Apollinaris mineral water firm with Edward Steinkopff in 1874. In April 1880 Smith (who later founded the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'') handed control of the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' to his new son-in-law

Henry Yates Thompson Henry Yates Thompson (15 December 1838 – 8 July 1928) was a British newspaper proprietor and collector of illuminated manuscripts. Life and career Yates Thompson was the eldest of five sons born to Samuel Henry Thompson, a banker from a lead ...

who, with his editor

John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially, a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...

(later Viscount Morley), determined to turn it into a radical Liberal paper. In order to continue his advocacy of the old policy of the ''Pall Mall'', H. H. GibbsGibbs, director of the

was a Conservative merchant banker and a member of

Antony Gibbs & Sons Antony Gibbs & Sons was a British trading company, established in London in 1802, whose interests spanned trading in cloth, guano, wine and fruit, and led to it becoming involved in banking, shipping and insurance. Having been family-owned via a ...

, a firm of merchant traders. His uncle's firm Gibbs Bright & Co. (of Bristol & Liverpool) had been previously involved in the West African

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

to their Caribbean sugar plantations and acted as shipping agents for

Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

's SS Great Britain; the firm was latterly involved in the

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

fertiliser trade with the Bolivian & Peruvian governments and later in the sodium nitrate trade (needed for munitions) in Chile. founded the ''St James's Gazette'', taking Greenwood and the ''Pall Malls entire staff; the first issue appeared on 31 May 1880.

Publication

left, "He created '' Caricature_of__Frederick_Greenwood_by_'Ape'_(Carlo_Pellegrini_(caricaturist).html" ;"title="The Pall Mall Gazette''"
Caricature of Frederick Greenwood by 'Ape' ( Carlo_Pellegrini)_in_Vanity_Fair_(British_magazine).html" ;"title="Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)">Carlo Pellegrini) in ''Vanity_Fair'',_June_1880.html" ;"title="Vanity Fair (British magazine)">''Vanity Fair'', June 1880">Vanity Fair (British magazine)">''Vanity Fair'', June 1880 In the new paper Frederick Greenwood fought for the same cause with the same spirit and capacity as in the old. He powerfully advocated the occupation of Egypt in 1882, and was the whole-hearted opponent of the

Irish nationalists Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

. One occasional contributor to this 'strongest of Tory voices' was the critic

George Saintsbury George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th centu ...

. No newspaper helped more effectively to destroy

W. E. Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

's power and to prepare the way for the long predominance of the

Liberal Unionist Party The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

. But various causes, of which the strongest was the decline of a taste for serious journalism in the public, rendered it impossible for the ''St James's'' to attain to the prosperity of the ''Pall Mall''. After the death of one of the proprietors, George Gibbs, on 26 November 1886 the financial control passed to his cousin Henry Gibbs, who was not equally in harmony with Greenwood's views. In 1888 Greenwood persuaded Edward Steinkopff (still in the Apollinaris business with George Smith, the ex-proprietor of the ''Pall Mall Gazette'') to buy the ''St James's''. But the new proprietor refused his editor the freedom he had so far enjoyed; and Greenwood retired suddenly and in anger within the year, to be succeeded by

. ''St James's Gazette'' was one of the earliest supporters of the Imperialist movement, and between 1895 and 1899 was the chief advocate in the Press of resistance to the foreign bounties on sugar which disadvantaged British trade with the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, thus giving an early impetus to the movement for Tariff Reform, and to Colonial or

Imperial Preference Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of ...

. Hugh Chisholm in 1903 Hugh Chisholm joined the ''St James's Gazette'' as assistant editor in 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. In the same year the paper's proprietor Edward Steinkopff sold the massively successful Apollinaris business to the restaurateur and hotelier Frederick Gordon, receiving £1,500,000 as his share. During these years, Chisholm also contributed numerous articles on political, financial and literary subjects to the weekly journals and monthly reviews, becoming well known as a literary critic and Conservative publicist. The paper appealed to and influenced a comparatively small circle of cultured readers, a "superior" function more and more difficult to reconcile with business considerations. During the years immediately following 1892, when the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' again became Conservative, the competition between Conservative evening papers became acute, because '' The Globe'' and ''Evening Standard'' were also penny Conservative journals; and it was increasingly difficult to carry on the ''St James's'' on its old lines so as to secure a profit to the proprietor; by degrees modifications were made in the general character of the paper, with a view to its containing more news and less purely literary matter. But it retained its original shape, with sixteen (after 1897, twenty) small pages, a form which the ''Pall Mall'' had abandoned in 1892. A number of well-known writers had pieces or short stories published in the ''Gazette'', including

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wor ...

('The Grave by the Handpost', Christmas number, November 1897);

Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for '' The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books ...

("A Bohemian in Exile", the first of the ''Pagan Papers''); Andrew Lang's 'Old Friends', a series of parodic essays in the form of imagined letters between fictional characters; P. G. Wodehouse (three articles from 1902–1903) and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

("Mr. Oscar Wilde on Mr. Oscar Wilde", 18 January 1895). Ronald McNeill, 1st Baron Cushendun

Chisholm moved in 1899 to '' The Standard'' as chief leader-writer. His place on the ''St James's Gazette'' was taken in 1900 by the Irish barrister Ronald McNeill, (later Baron Cushendun).Chisholm became editor-in-chief of the 11th edition of the

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

in 1903, with McNeill as assistant editor from 1906 to 1910 Eric Parker (editor of ''The Field'' from 1911 until 1932) also worked there.In his book ''Memory Looks Forward'' (1937) Parker recounted his memories of journalism beginning with the ''St James's Gazette'' under Ronald McNeill, afterwards Lord Cushendun. Source: J. B. Atkins
''The Spectator'', 29 October 1937, p. 34.
br />"Those who were journalists then will be made by the realism of the narrative to feel that they are living their lives again. The atmosphere and the methods described have almost passed away. Such papers as the ''St James's Gazette'', the ''Globe'' and the ''Westminster Gazette'' were conducted by small thinking and writing staffs who, working anonymously, were ready to accept a collective credit or discredit. The well-known exaggeration that the influence of a paper is in inverse ratio to its circulation might have been invented for them – particularly for the Westminster Gazette." One of the concerns in Britain around the turn of the century was

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

into the UK, prompted partially by the

Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

One of the most vociferous and outspoken anti-alien critics of the day was Major

William Evans-Gordon Major Sir William Eden Evans Gordon (8 August 1857 – 31 October 1913)''The Times'', 3 November 1913 p. 11''d'' was a British MP who had served as a military diplomat in India. As a political officer on secondment from the British Indian Army ...

, MP for Stepney, whose "restrictionist" rabble-rousing activities with the

British Brothers' League The British Brothers' League (BBL) was a British anti-immigration, extraparliamentary, pressure group, the "largest and best organised" of its time. Described as proto-fascist, the group attempted to organise along paramilitary lines. History ...

led to the Aliens Act 1905. Evans-Gordon's 1903 book ''The Alien Immigrant'' on the plight of Jewish and other (undesirable, in his view) immigrants was dedicated "To my friend, Edward Steinkopff", the owner of the ''St James's Gazette''. Steinkopff's only child, Mary Margaret Steinkopff, married Evans-Gordon's brother-in-law, Col. James Stewart-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth.

''St James's Budget''

Starting on 3 July 1880, a weekly digest of the ''Gazette'', including the main literary pieces and a summary of the week's news, was published as the ''St James's Budget''. After 1893, it was turned into an independent illustrated weekly, edited from the same office by James Penderel-Brodhurst (later editor of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' from 1905), who had been on the editorial staff since 1888; and it continued to be published till 1899 or until 1911.

Amalgamation

C. Arthur Pearson (later described by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

as "the champion hustler of the Tariff Reform League") had had a financial interest in the ''St James's Gazette'' for several years. When the Tariff Reform battle started Pearson was the head of a syndicate which bought the morning ''Standard'' newspaper in 1904 for £300,000. With the acquisition went the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', which published every day a full list of Stock Exchange prices and was largely purchased on that account. Steinkopff sold the ''St James's Gazette'' (or a controlling interest in it) to Pearson in 1903, who amalgamated it with the ''

'' on 13 March 1905; the ''Gazette'' ceased publication thereafter.

Disambiguation

Neither the ''St James's Gazette'' nor the weekly ''St James's Budget'' are to be confused with the ''St James Magazine'', a monthly magazine published in London by W. Kent & Co. in four series between April 1861 and January 1882.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint James's Gazette Publications established in 1880 Publications disestablished in 1905 Evening newspapers London newspapers Defunct daily newspapers Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom