John William Robertson Scott CH (born in

Wigton Wigton is a market town in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It lies just outside the Lake District. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells and the Solway coast. It is served by Wigton railway st ...

, Cumberland on 20 April 1866, died

Idbury Idbury is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, about southeast of Stow-on-the-Wold in neighbouring Gloucestershire. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlets of Bould and Foscot, Oxf ...

, Oxfordshire on 21 December 1962) was a British journalist and author, best known for his writings on rural affairs, and a

Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire. The orde ...

.John Cripps, "Scott, John William Robertson (1866–1962)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; accessed 13 Feb 2013

Family

His father was David Young Crozier Scott (1844–1887), a commercial traveller and advocate of temperance, and his mother was Janet Robertson (1843–1905). He was partly educated in

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

schools and his parents attended Quaker and non-conformist worship. When a child, his family moved to Carlisle and then Birmingham, when his father became head of the

Independent Order of Good Templars The International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT; founded as the Independent Order of Good Templars), whose international body is known as Movendi International, is a fraternal organization which is part of the temperance movement, promoting ...

. He married Elspet Keith, a writer and oriental scholar, in 1906. They had no children.

Career

After freelancing for various publications including the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', he received a staff position on the ''

Birmingham Gazette The ''Birmingham Gazette'', known for much of its existence as ''Aris's Birmingham Gazette'', was a newspaper that was published and circulated in Birmingham, England, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Founded as a weekly publicatio ...

'' but left when he indicated he would not write any articles supporting the Conservative Party or its causes. In 1887 he started work at the Pall Mall Gazette under W. T. Stead and later Edward T. Cook, following Cook to the ''

Westminster Gazette ''The Westminster Gazette'' was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Margaret ...

'' in 1893. In 1899 he moved to the ''

Daily Chronicle The ''Daily Chronicle'' was a left-wing British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the '' Daily News'' to become the '' News Chronicle''. Foundation The ''Daily Chronicle'' was developed by Edward Lloyd out of a ...

'' but resigned over his opposition to the

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

, which his proprietors supported. As a result, he moved to the country,

Great Canfield Great Canfield is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. The village, which sits at the south-east edge of its civil parish, is approximately south-west from the small town of Great Dunmow, and north-west fro ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, and began to write on rural matters for the ''

Country Gentleman ''The Country Gentleman'' (1852–1955) was an American agricultural magazine founded in 1852 in Albany, New York, by Luther Tucker.Frank Luther Mott (1938A History of American Magazines 1850–1865"The Country Gentleman", page 432, Harvard Univ ...

'', ''

World's Work ''The World's Work'' (1900–1932) was a monthly magazine that covered national affairs from a pro-business point of view. It was produced by the publishing house Doubleday, Page and Company, which provided the first editor, Walter Hines Page. ...

'' and '' The Field''. He produced numerous books and articles, setting out country life for readers in towns and cities. He moved to Japan for a few years after the outbreak of World War I. He returned in 1922 and becoming involved with the

National Federation of Women's Institutes National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. In 1923 he moved to

, Oxfordshire, in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

. There he founded the journal '' The Countryman'', which he edited until 1947, despite selling it in 1943. He aimed to inform towns people of the realities about rural life, believing knowledge of these topics was fundamental to living a good life. He was also involved in local government and housing policy. He was a magistrate and a county councillor and for many years a committee member of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Health.

Books

His best-selling book was ''England's Green and Pleasant Land'' (1925) "a scorching condemnation of the agricultural workers' conditions of life" which described problems with rural housing. Despite its harsh portrait, it did much to promote an idea of rural life as idyll in England. There was a second edition in 1931 and a revised and extended edition in 1947.''England's Green and Pleasant Land''. (Penguin Books; 608.) Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1947; p. iv He also wrote ''The Foundations of Japan'' based on his travels to the Orient.

Awards

He was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1947 and received an honorary MA from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1949.

References

External links

* *
Article on Idbury.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson Scott, J. W. Scottish journalists Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour 1866 births 1962 deaths Scottish non-fiction writers Rural society in the United Kingdom