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J. A. Spender

John Alfred Spender CH (23 December 1862 – 21 June 1942) was a British journalist and author. He also edited the London newspaper The Westminster Gazette from 1896 to 1922.

J. A. Spender

John Alfred Spender

(1862-12-23)23 December 1862
Bath, Somerset, England

21 June 1942(1942-06-21) (aged 79)

Bromley, Kent, England

Balliol College, Oxford

Journalist, editor, and author

Mary Rawlinson (1892–1942)

Early life[edit]

Spender was the eldest of four sons born to John Kent Spender, a doctor, and his wife, the novelist Lillian Spender. He was educated at Bath College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he did well in his studies but missed a first in Greats because of illness.

Later life[edit]

Spender's departure from The Westminster Gazette also meant his departure from journalism, as he now pursued a new career as an author. Over the next two decades, he wrote a number of books on nonfiction subjects, including histories, travelogues, biographies and memoirs. His most prominent works were two biographies of Liberal Party Prime Ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith and a memoir of his Life Journalism and Politics. He also served on a number of public commissions and inquiries, and after refusing public honours three previous times, he accepted an appointment as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.


He also remained involved in Liberal politics, but his influence was much diminished with the decline of the Liberal Party in the interwar period. His concern about the insufficiency of British armaments led many to brand Spender as an appeaser before the Second World War, or otherwise to praise him for his able defence of Neville Chamberlain's policy. Spender died in June 1942 after a long illness.[6]

The State and Pensions in Old Age (1892)

The Comments of Bagshot (1908)

The Life of The Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (2 vols.) (1924)

The Public Life (2 vols.) (1925)

Life, Journalism and Politics (2 vols.) (1927)

(with ) Life of Herbert Henry Asquith, Lord Oxford and Asquith (2 vols.) (1932)

Cyril Asquith

The Changing East (Pocket Edition 1935)

New lamps and ancient lights (1940)

Last Essays (1944)

Men and things (1968)

Brack, Duncan, ed. (1998). "J. A. Spender". Dictionary of Liberal Biography. London: Politico's Publishing. pp. 337–339.  1902301099.

ISBN

(2004). "Spender, John Alfred". In Matthew, H.C.G.; Harrison, Brian (eds.). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 900–902.

Morris, A. J. A.

(1981). The Nineteenth Century. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain. Vol. 1. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807814830.

Koss, Stephen

(1984). The Twentieth Century Test. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain. Vol. 2. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807815985.

Koss, Stephen

Harris, Wilson (1946). J. A. Spender. Cassell.