Alaric Alexander Watts

Alaric Alexander Watts (16 March 1797 – 5 April 1864) was a British poet and journalist, born in London. His life was dedicated to newspaper creation and editing, and he was seen as a conservative writer. It led him to bankruptcy, when a pension was awarded to him by a friend, Lord Aberdeen.

He may now be best remembered for his alliterative poem The Siege of Belgrade, which begins with a much-quoted couplet:

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.

Alaric Watts was the son of John Mosley Watts and grandson of William Watts, a Leicester physician of repute. After leaving school he made his living as a teacher for a short time, and in 1818-19 was part of the staff of the New Monthly Magazine in London. At about the same time he became a contributor to the Literary Gazette.

In 1822, leaving his position at the Gazette, he was made editor of the Leeds Intelligencer (1822–23), in the columns of which he was one of the first to advocate measures for protecting workers in factories against accidents from machinery (see occupational safety). In 1823 he published his first volume of verse, Poetical Sketches, and in 1824 he became the editor of the Literary Souvenir (till 1838), of which he also became the proprietor two years later. During his ownership he secured the co-operation of some of the most famous men of letters of that period. In 1825 he went to Manchester as editor of the Manchester Courier, a position which he resigned a year later.

In 1827 he assisted in founding the Standard as a sub-editor, while the first editor was Stanley Lees Giffard; and in 1833 he started the United Service Gazette, which he edited for 8 years. In 1839 he helped Lady Bulwer with a manuscript of Cheveley and during that time he offered her to stay some time at his cottage. During the same year he returned to the Standard as an editor and took a job at the Morning Herald where he worked until 1846.

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