PLANT HERE THE STANDARD Also by Dennis Griffiths THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH PRESS (Editor) 200 NOT OUT 'The choice of a name then claimed our attention. The object was to make a stand against the inroad of principle; contrary to our Constitution in Church and State; a very appropriate motto was chosen by Dr Giffard (the Editor) Sig;nifer, statue sig;num, Hie optime manebimus Plant here The Standard. Here we shall best remain. and on the 21st May, 1827, The Standard was reared, hauled as a rallying point and was speedily followed by the raising of Standards in the Provincial and Colonial Conservative Press. Even Foreign newspapers have adopted the name.' - Charles Baldwin, Publisher Plant Here The Standard Dennis Griffi ths ~ MACMILLAN © Dennis Griffiths 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-12463-3 ISBN 978-1-349-12461-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-12461-9 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 Contents List ojPlates Vll Acknowledgements ix Standard Names and Spellings xii Foreword &y Viscount Rothermere xiii 1 An Outspoken Publisher 1 2 The Chronicle is Launched 15 3 A Phalanx of First-Class Wits 28 4 Plant Here The Standard 42 5 Bright, Broken Maginn 57 6 Enter Edward Baldwin 72 7 A Change of Ownership 91 8 Captain Hamber Departs 111 9 Mudford Takes Over 124 10 The New Journalism 141 11 The Greatest Hustler 153 12 Dalziel in Charge 177 13 The Man from Manchester 195 14 Em pire Crusader 210 15 The General Strike 222 16 Celebrating 100 Years 236 17 The Abdication Crisis 251 v Vl Contents 18 Munich and Appeasement 267 19 On the Brink 280 20 The Standard at War 289 21 Peace in Shoe Lane 311 22 Death of Beaverbrook 324 23 Decline and Fall 338 24 Harmsworth Victorious 360 References 377 Appendix 1 Chronology 391 Appendix 2 Editors 393 Appendix 3 Circulation 395 Appendix 4 Evening Standard Senior Staff, January 1995 397 Bibliography 399 Index 403 List of Plates 1 An Account of the Publick Transactions in Christendom published by Richard Baldwin 2 A Postscript to the Post-Man published by Anne Baldwin 3 St. James's Chronicle published by Henry Baldwin 4 No. 38, New Bridge Street: Offices of St. James 's Chronicle and The Standard 5 First edition of The Standard 6 Dr. Stanley Lees Giffard, first editor of The Standard 7 Duel between Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchilsea 8 Dr William Maginn 9 Alaric Watts 10 Edward Baldwin, proprietor The Standard and Morning Herald 11 Mrs Harris's Express (Punch cartoons) 12 JamesJohnstone, proprietor The Standard-Vanity Fair cartoon 13 Evening Standard, first edition 14 Charles Williams, first editor of the Evening Standard and one of the great war correspondents 15 The Fight for The Standard 16 John Eldon Gorst, briefly editor of The Standard, architect of Conservative victory and later Solicitor-General 17 Thomas Escott, Standard leader writer and confidant of Lord Randolph Churchill and Joseph Chamberlain 18 William Mudford, editor/manager The Standard 19 Advertisement hall of the new Standard building, St. Bride Street 20 Standard bill 21 C. Arthur Pearson, proprietor The Standard 22 H. A. Gwynne, editor The Standard vii viii List ojPlates 23 The Standard auction announcement in the Newspaper World 24 Evening Standard and the first aeroplane newspaper service 25 Sir Edward Hulton and Lord Beaverbrook (both proprietors of the Evening Standard) 26 Evening Standard editorial staff during General Strike 1926 27 Evening Standard composing room, showing a battery of Linotypes, during the 1930s 28 Abdication Crisis 1936 29 Frank Owen and Michael Foot, both editors of the Evening Standard 30 German propaganda newspaper dropped over London 31 Evening Standard is bombed 1940 32 Group Captain Max Aitken with his father, Lord Beaverbrook, 1945 33 Moon Landing 1969 34 Charles WintoUl~ editor Evening Standard 1959-76 and 1978-80 35 Back bench, Shoe Lane. 36 Jocelyn Stevens, in 1978, managing director of Express Newspapers 37 Victor Matthews, chairman of Express Newspapers, at the launch of the Daily Star, February 1978. 38 Simon Jenkins, editor of the Evening Standard, during the merger crisis 39 Louis Kirby (right), editor, at the Evening Standard Drama Awards 1985 with Princess Alexandra and Lord Matthews. 40 John Leese, editor, cuts the cake in December 1988 as the Evening Standard leaves Fleet Street for Kensington 41 Viscount Rothermere in the Evening Standard editorial room, Northcliffe House, Kensington 42 Stewart Steven (editor Evening Standard), Viscount Rothermere (Chairman, Daily Mail and General Trust), Sir David English (Chairman, Associated Newspapers) and Paul Dacre (editor Daily Mail) Acknowledgemen ts Many people have kindly assisted me in my research, but special mention is due to Mr Charles Wintour, former Chairman and editor of the Evening Standard, and to Dr Joseph O. Baylen, Regents' Pro­ fessor of History Emeritus, Georgia State University. I must thank also most warmly Viscount Rothermere, Chairman, Daily Mail & General Trust, for his co-operation and for graciously writing the foreword. I owe a great debt also to Dr Aled Jones, of the History Department, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; to the late Professor John Dodge, first Director of the Graduate Centre for Journalism, City University; to the present Director, Professor Hugh Stephenson; and to his colleagues Henry Clother, RobertJones and Stuart Patrick. Special mention must also be accorded to the late Stephen Koss, Professor of History, Columbia University, who died in October 1986 at the age of 44. He not only read the opening chapters but was also instru­ mental in directing me to the Disraeli, Peel and Salisbury Papers, and I have also drawn upon his magnificent two-volume study, The Rise and Fall oj the Political Press in Britain, which covers the periods 1850-1900 and 1900-85. The Earl of Halsbury, Chancellor of Brunei University, was most gracious in providing access to his family's history, with particular reference to Dr Stanley Lees Giffard, first editor of The Standard; and Hardinge Giffard, a future Lord Chancellor of England. The present Earl provides a direct link with the first days of The Standard, and in conversation was able to recall boyhood talks with his grandfather, Hardinge Giffard, who had worked with his father, Stanley Lees Giffard, as assistant editor before achieving fame at the Bar. For any student of the early days of newspapers, Politics and the Press c.1750-1850 by the late Arthur Aspinall, Professor of Modern History, University of Reading, is indispensable. Much help and advice was also rendered by Dr Lucy Brown, formerly Senior Lecturer in History, London School of Economics, who read the early script; her seminal work, Victorian News and Newspapers, is a major source of reference. I would also thank Dr David Jeremy and his colleagues of the Business History Unit, London School of Economics, for their advice. Among the many other academics, archivists and librarians who have rendered assistance, special thanks are accorded to Professor Ray Boston and David Linton, editors of The NewspajJer Press in Britain: an annotated bibliography, for sharing their wide knowledge of the British press; Dr B. S. Benedikz, sub-librarian (special collections) at the University of Birmingham; Judith Dunn, Information and Services Librarian, News International Newspapers Ltd.; the late Alec Harrison, ix x Acknowledgements honorary librarian, London Press Club; Robert Heron, owner of one of the largest collections of newspapers in the United Kingdom; Gor­ don Phillips, formerly archivist of The Times and Today; Anne Piggott, formerly archivist of The Times; Stephen Stacey, of the Bodleian Library; Justine Taylor, archivist, Reuters; and C. Woolgar, archivist, University of Southampton. For early research, I am indebted to R. Rosenberg for his work on the Baldwins; to Ian Maxwell, librarian, University of Exeter, for his advice on London publishers; to Richard and Marjorie Bond, the University of North Carolina, for their investigations into the Minute Book of the St. James's Chronicle; and to Robert Wilkinson-Latham for incisive information on Victorian war correspondents and the campaigns they reported. On other matters, the archivists of Lloyds Bank; the Royal Literary Fund; Oriel College, Oxford, and Staffordshire County Council were of great assistance, but I am especially grateful to Miss Robin Myers, honorary archivist of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers. Much of the research was done at the Public Record Office, the House of Lords Library, the British Library, the Guildhall Library and the Barbican, Uxbridge and Buckinghamshire libraries. Two libraries which were especially important were St. Bride Printing Library (where James Mosley, Nigel Roche, Dr Louise Craven and Gwyneth Haslam merit warm thanks); and the British Newspaper Library, Colindale, where the Head, Geoffrey Smith, and the former Heads, Geoffrey Hamilton and Eve Johansson, and their colleagues, Graham Cranfield and John Westmancoat, facilitated my extensive use of The Standard files.