George Frederick Pardon

George Frederick Pardon (1824–1884) was an English journalist and writer, especially on sports and games, where he used the pseudonym Rawdon Crawley or Captain Crawley.

Pardon was born in London, educated at a private school, and at the age of 15 entered the printing office of Stevens & Pardon in Bell Yard, Temple Bar. Soon afterwards he contributed articles to The Old Monthly and The Sunbeam, periodicals edited by John Abraham Heraud. In 1841–2 he sub-edited the Evening Star, founded by Feargus O'Connor, and became close to most of the radical Chartist leaders. He made a serious financial loss on the Star, for which he was the London publisher from July 1842 to February 1843.

From 1847 to 1850 he edited The People's and Howitt's Journal, and in the summer 1850 latter year he joined the staff of John Cassell as editor of the Working Man's Friend.

In 1851 Pardon launched the Illustrated Exhibitor, a weekly description of the Great Exhibition, which was revived in 1862, and then merged in the Magazine of Art. In 1851 he also planned and edited for Cassell the Popular Educator and others educational publications in Cassell's stable. In 1854–5 he was engaged as editor of the Family Friend and the Home Companion; and he assisted in launching Orr's Circle of the Sciences.

Pardon died suddenly on 5 August 1884, at the Fleur de Lis Hotel, Canterbury, while on a visit.

In 1861–2 Pardon wrote for Messrs. Routledge a Guide to the Exhibition, the Popular Guide to London, with handbooks on chess, draughts, and card games, later combined as "Hoyle Modernised". Under the pseudonym "Captain Crawley" he produced The Billiard Book, Games for Gentlemen, and about twenty other volumes on games, sports, and pastimes, most of them with American editions. For the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica he wrote the articles on "Billiards" and "Bagatelle".

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