Viscount 15-1922

,15-1922), VISCOUNT, British newspaper proprietor, was born on July 15, 1865 at Chapelizod, Dublin, the eldest of a family of fourteen. His father, Alfred Harmsworth (1837-1889), descended from an old Hampshire family, was a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple. His mother, Geraldine Mary, who died Aug. 29, 1925, a woman of remarkable intellect and strong character, was a daughter of William Maffett.

Of the seven sons, the two eldest, Alfred and Harold, became members of the House of Lords as Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere respectively; the third, Cecil Bisshopp (b. 1869), became in 1915 under-secretary for home affairs and in 1919 under-secretary for foreign affairs, having entered the House of Commons as Liberal M.P. for Droitwich (1906-10) and subse quently sitting for S. Beds; while the fourth, Robert Leicester (b. 1870), who was created a baronet in 1918, entered the House of Commons in 1900 as Liberal M.P. for Caithness, a seat which he retained till 1922. The other three sons were Hildebrand Aubrey (b. 1872), from 1901 to 1904 editor of The New Liberal Review; St. John (b. 1876), the creator of the Perrier mineral water busi ness; and Vyvyan George (b. 1881).

Early Journalism.

The Harmsworths moved to London in the year 1867, and at Henley House school, West Hampstead, the boy Harmsworth started in 1878 the first of his journal istic adventures, a school magazine. This was originally issued in ms. but was afterwards printed and sometimes set up by himself in his spare time. At 15 he did some work for Mr. Jealous, then editor of The Hampstead and Highgate Express. As secretary and companion to one of Lord Lilford's sons, he travelled extensively in Europe. On his return to London he became assistant editor of Youth and contributed articles to The Morning Post, and to the St. James's Gazette.

But his health temporarily broke down in 1884. Ordered to live out of London, he went to Coventry in 1885 and worked for the firm of Iliffe and Sons, owners of many publications. With them he remained till 1886, and he then went back to London and joined a general publishing business. Among other ventures he

started on June 16, 1888 Answers to Correspondents, a weekly periodical intended to be a more popular form of Notes and Queries. As Answers it laid the foundation of what eventually became the largest periodical publishing business in the world, the Amalgamated Press. Alfred Harmsworth had already been joined by his second brother, Harold (see ROTHERMERE, VISCOUNT). The two brothers revolutionized the current methods of periodical journalism. The profits of the accumulated publications soon soared to 150,000 a year. In the next few years Alfred Harms worth travelled much in Europe, India, Africa, Canada and the United States. On April 11, 1888 he had married Mary Eliza beth, daughter of Robert Milner, a West Indian merchant.

On Aug. 31, 1894 he and his brother Harold acquired the Lon don Evening News, in which the Conservative party had sunk some £300,000. It was then losing money heavily, but it was at once reorganized with such effect that the first working week yielded a profit of 17, and the first year one of 114,000. In the same year he fitted out an Arctic expedition under Mr. F. G. Jackson, which explored Franz Josef Land. In the general election of 1895 he stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate for Parliament at Portsmouth.

The Daily Mail.

On May 4, 1896 a new halfpenny morning paper, The Daily Mail, was launched, "the busy man's news paper," as he called it. It embodied many innovations, a very full service of cables, the employment of numerous famous writers, condensation of unimportant topics, and costly and daring enterprises of various kinds. A comparison of past files of the London Press shows how it revolutionized daily journalism. One of the three leading articles in the first number dealt with the then almost unknown motor-car, in the future of which Alfred Harmsworth had a firm belief, being himself already a qualified driver. The Daily Mail attained a sale of 600,000 copies a day in the Boer War, and acquired sound influence on national policy at home and abroad.