Robert Stephen Rintoul (12 January 1787 – 22 April 1858) was a Scottish

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and campaigner for political reform.

Life

He was born at Tibbermore,

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

, Scotland in 1787, and educated at the Aberdalgie parish school. After serving his apprenticeship to the printing trade he became the printer and subsequently the editor of the '' Dundee Advertiser''. In 1808, in his first year in Dundee, he came into conflict with the Provost of Dundee, Alexander Riddoch, and together with George Kinloch began a local radical movement. In 1819 he was invited to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with Riddoch as part of a parliamentary debate on the Burgh Reform Act. In 1811 he was promoted from printer to printer and editor of The Advertiser. He stepped down from these roles in February 1825. In 1826 he went to

where he was editor of ''The Atlas'' before, in July 1828 with the assistance of friends, founding ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''. In this publication Rintoul strongly supported the Reform Bill, and to him was due the catchphrase "The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill". After publishing and managing the affairs of ''The Spectator'' for more than thirty years, he sold it in February 1858. He died in London on 22 April 1858.

References

* British male journalists 1787 births 1858 deaths Scottish journalists The Spectator editors British magazine founders People from Perthshire 19th-century British businesspeople People associated with Dundee {{UK-journalist-stub