John Russell Scott (12 July 1879 – 5 April 1949) was a British publisher. He was the owner of 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 ...

'' and the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

''.

Early life

Scott was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, the third child of C. P. Scott and his wife Rachel Susan Cook. Scott attended

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

and studied engineering at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Career

At the request of his father, Scott took over the post of managing director of the ''Guardian'' in 1905. After the death of his brother

Edward Taylor Scott Edward Taylor Scott (15 November 1883 – 22 April 1932) was a British journalist, who was editor and briefly co-owner of the ''Manchester Guardian'', and the younger son of its editor-owner C. P. Scott. After a brief spell at Oxford University, ...

in 1932, he became the sole majority owner of the publishing company The Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd as chairman and Governing Director.

Scott Trust

In 1936 he transferred control of the publisher and its periodicals to a newly created trust, the Scott Trust, so as to ensure the independence of the newspapers and their reporting. Scott was the first and only chairman of this first Scott Trust, which was dissolved in 1948, after a tax law was changed so that this type of trust was also subject to inheritance tax, and a new statute was created. In 2008 the trust was dissolved again and replaced with The

Scott Trust Limited The Scott Trust Limited is the British limited company that owns Guardian Media Group and thus ''The Guardian'' as well as various other media businesses in the UK. It was created to acquire ''The Guardian'' in 1936, and reorganised as a limited ...

, which is the owner of the Guardian to the present.

Personal life

In 1908 Scott married Olga Briggs, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. He lived in

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is south of Manchester. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census the parish had a population of 26,213 and the built up area had a p ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, John Russell British publishers (people) 1879 births 1949 deaths People educated at Rugby School