John Passmore Edwards
| John Passmore Edwards | |
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Portrait of John Passmore Edwards by George Frederic Watts, 1894
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| Born |
24 March 1823 Blackwater, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 22 April 1911 (aged 88) |
| Occupation | journalist and philanthropist |
John Passmore Edwards (24 March 1823 – 22 April 1911) was a British journalist, newspaper owner and philanthropist. The son of a carpenter, he was born in Blackwater, a small village between Redruth and Truro in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
His mother's maiden name was Passmore, and she originated from Newton Abbot, Devon.
He became the Manchester representative of London Sentinel, a weekly newspaper opposed to the Corn Law. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Salisbury.
He became the editor of a leading London newspaper The Echo, which he had bought in 1876. His publishing ventures had been failures for a time, but his 1862 purchase of Building News led to profitability; this was followed by Mechanics Magazine and a share in the daily Echo. He eventually sold two thirds of his share in The Echo to Andrew Carnegie to follow a political and social agenda. However, they disagreed and he bought it back and restored his editor in 1886. The paper closed in 1905.
He was a delegate to peace congresses in Brussels, Paris, and Frankfurt (from 1848 to 1850). He stood as an Independent candidate for Truro in the General Election of 1868. He did not win this seat but in 1880 he gained the parliamentary seat of Salisbury. However, he soon became a bit sceptical about the quality of professional politics and the inability of politicians to effectively represent the interests of their constituents. He twice refused knighthood, and his opposition to the Second Boer War made him somewhat unpopular.
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