George Newnes

Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet (13 March 1851 – 9 June 1910) was a British publisher and editor and a founding figure in popular journalism.

His father, Thomas Mold Newnes, was a Congregational church minister at the Glenorchy Chapel, Matlock.

[2] They had two sons; the eldest died at age eight (his death was said to have devastated his father),[4] and Frank Newnes (born 1876).

[6] The magazine was initially published in Manchester like a mini-encyclopedia, containing extracts from books and other publications, but principally a diverse range of tit-bits of information presented in an easy-to-read format.

[7] Arguably his best-known publication was The Strand Magazine, begun in 1891, in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was first able to publish his Sherlock Holmes mystery series.

Politically, Newnes was Liberal, and in 1885 he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the newly created constituency of Eastern Cambridgeshire or Newmarket.

[1] Newnes built a large home called Hollerday House in Lynton, North Devon.

Sir George Newnes died at his Lynton home in June 1910 aged 59, having suffered ill health from diabetes for some time.

Caricature of George Newnes by Leslie Ward ("Spy") in Vanity Fair magazine, 1894