Henry John Athelson Scott (23 July 1901 – 12 January 1978) was founding editor of the Dalesman magazine, in Yorkshire, northern England.
During these extended stays in the countryside, Harry began jotting down details of life in the Dales - the stories of the folk who lived there and the customs and traditions they maintained.
He was handed the prestigious task of commentating on royal visits to the north for the fledgling BBC which had only been broadcasting for some 10 years.
[5] In 1939 Scott showed his shoebox full of stories from the Dales to six friends, including Linton Andrews, editor of the Leeds Mercury.
Harry Scott carefully crafted that small-format magazine, introducing features such as "A Yorkshire Dalesman's Diary" and "Readers' Club" which survive to this day.
A columnist in the Leeds Mercury wrote in October 1939: "Anyone who knows The Yorkshire Dalesman will be glad that its editor, Mr. Harry J. Scott, has courageously decided to continue publication in war-time as a reminder of good things still alive in the world.
monthly, with its photographs and drawings and its sketches of country life and character will bring the comforting thought of the Dales to many in need of relief from war duties and anxieties.
Production of the Dalesman became a cottage industry in Clapham, with various villagers helping stuff envelopes and other administrative tasks.
Money was tight and Scott took a job as sub editor at the Craven Herald & Pioneer It was here, in 1943, that he met a young W. R. Mitchell, on his first day as a trainee reporter.
Always keen to innovate he also introduced the magazine's first full colour picture in 1946 - a painting by local artist Fred Lawson.
That year Scott also began publishing a second magazine, the Northern Review, covering the whole of the North of England, but it never emulated the success of The Dalesman and was soon merged with its sister title.
By 1955, The Dalesman's circulation had reached 25,000 copies, and it was finally decided the business had outgrown the Scotts' front room at Fellside and new, much bigger, premises were acquired elsewhere in Clapham in the summer of 1955.
[9] Scott officially retired as editor of The Dalesman in the summer of 1969, left day-to-day operations some four years earlier.
He and Dorothy took semi-retirement, moving from Clapham to Grange-over-Sands, in Cumbria, from where he would hold monthly management meetings with Mitchell and other senior staff.
I saw him on the day before he died, at his home in Grange-over-Sands, overlooking the restless tides and magnificent sunsets of Morecambe Bay.