W. T. Stead
William Thomas Stead (5 July 1849 – 15 April 1912) was an English newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era.[1] Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, including his 1885 series of articles, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. These were written in support of a bill, later dubbed the "Stead Act", that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.[2]
William Thomas Stead
5 July 1849
15 April 1912 (aged 62)
- New York City: 91st St and Central Park East
- London: Victoria Embankment near to Fleet Street
- Outside Darlington Library, Crown Street, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 1ND, Great Britain
Stead's "new journalism" paved the way for the modern tabloid in Great Britain.[2] He has been described as "the most famous journalist in the British Empire".[3] He is considered to have influenced how the press could be used to influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated "Government by Journalism".[4] He was known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation and reformation of England's criminal codes.
Stead died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.[2]
Early life[edit]
Stead was born in Embleton, Northumberland on July 5, 1849, the son of the Reverend William Stead, a poor and respected Congregational minister, and Isabella (née Jobson), a cultivated daughter of a Northumberland farmer, John Jobson of Warkworth.[4][5][6] A year later the family moved to Howdon on the River Tyne,[7] where his younger brother, Francis Herbert Stead, was born. Stead was largely educated at home by his father, and by the age of five he was already well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and is said to have been able to read Latin almost as well as he could read English.[8] It was Stead's mother who perhaps had the most lasting influence on her son's career. One of Stead's favourite childhood memories was of his mother leading a local campaign against the government's controversial Contagious Diseases Acts – which required prostitutes living in garrison towns to undergo medical examination.[9]
From 1862 to 1864, he attended Silcoates School in Wakefield until he was apprenticed to a merchant's office on the Quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he became a clerk.[10]
Meeting with William Randolph Hearst[edit]
A year before the Spanish–American War W. T. Stead travelled to New York to meet William Randolph Hearst, to teach him government by journalism.[35][36][37]
Travel to Russia[edit]
In 1905 Stead travelled to Russia to try to discourage violence during the Russian Revolution, but his tour and talks were unsuccessful.[38]
Death on the Titanic[edit]
Stead boarded the Titanic for a visit to the United States to take part in a peace congress at Carnegie Hall at the request of President William Howard Taft. Survivors of the Titanic reported very little about Stead's last hours. He chatted enthusiastically through the 11-course meal that fateful night, telling thrilling tales (including one about the cursed mummy of the British Museum), but then retired to bed at 10.30 pm.[13] After the ship struck the iceberg, Stead helped several women and children into the lifeboats, in an act "typical of his generosity, courage, and humanity", and gave his life jacket to another passenger.[4]
A later sighting of Stead, by survivor Philip Mock, has him clinging to a raft with John Jacob Astor IV. "Their feet became frozen", reported Mock, "and they were compelled to release their hold. Both were drowned."[48] William Stead's body was not recovered.
Stead had often claimed that he would die from either lynching or drowning.[4] He had published two pieces that gained greater significance in light of his fate on the Titanic. On 22 March 1886, he published an article titled "How the Mail Steamer went down in Mid Atlantic by a Survivor",[49] wherein a steamer collides with another ship, resulting in a high loss of life due to an insufficient ratio of lifeboats to passengers. Stead had added: "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats". In 1892, Stead published a story titled "From the Old World to the New",[50] in which a vessel, the Majestic, rescues survivors of another ship that collided with an iceberg.
Resources[edit]
Archives[edit]
Fourteen boxes of the papers of William Thomas Stead are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.[55][56] The bulk of this collection comprises Stead's letters from his many correspondents, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Gladstone and Christabel Pankhurst. There are also papers and a diary relating to his time spent in Holloway Prison in 1885 and to his many publications.
Papers of William Thomas Stead are also held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics,[57][58]
Charles Barker Howdill (1863–1941) took a colour photograph of Stead "finished in 12 minutes" on 17 January 1912, about three months before Stead's death. It is now in the collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries.[59]
