by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/24/21
William Digby
Born: 1 May 1849, Wisbech
Died: 29 September 1904 (aged 55)
Occupation: Journalist; politician
Nationality: British
Period: 1878–1901
Subject: Politics, Famines, India
Notable works: Famine Campaigns in Southern India; Prosperous British India
Spouse: Ellen Amelia Little; Sarah Maria Hutchinson
William Digby (1 May 1849 – 29 September 1904) was a British author, journalist and humanitarian.
Early life and career
William Digby was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire on 1 May 1849. He did his apprenticeship with the Isle of Ely and Wisbech Advertiser. He was employed at the Sussex Advertiser from 1864 to 1871.[1] He was married twice – first to Ellen Amelia Little in 1874 (who died in 1878) and then to Sara Maria Hutchinson in 1879. William Digby moved to the Indian subcontinent in 1871 and worked as a sub-editor in The Ceylon Observer,[2] and as the editor of The Madras Times in 1877.[3] He also worked as the editor of the Liverpool and Southport Daily News in 1880 and that of the Plymouth Daily Western Mercury in 1879. He served as senior partner of William Hutchinson and Company in 1887.[3]
Activism and politics
While working in Sri Lanka, Digby was involved in a temperance campaign and another one for abolishing food taxes.[4]
Famine relief
While working in India, he witnessed the Great Famine of 1876–78 and involved himself in relief works. He served as the Honorary Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Famine Relief Fund.[5] He opposed the laissez faire famine relief policies of the Famine Commissioner, Sir Richard Temple and argued for more Government aid in mitigating the effects of famine. In 1878 he wrote an extensive book about the famine titled The Famine Campaign in Southern India, Vol I and Vol II. For his contribution to the famine relief works, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (C.I.E) in 1878. The failure of the Government of India to provide effective famine relief made William Digby an outspoken critic of the British Government's India policy.
Liberal politics
Digby returned to England in 1879 after his first wife's death.[4] In November 1882 he became the first secretary of the National Liberal Club, a post he held till 1887.[4] He advocated full economic and racial equality, then representative Government and eventually Self-Government for the Indians. He published Indian Problems for English Consideration in 1881. In it, Digby argued that Indian reform was 'a Liberal duty', and defined India as 'a larger Ireland'.[4] Digby was an admirer of Lord Ripon and published a pamphlet in February 1885 titled India for the Indians and for England in defence of Ripon.[4] He contested the 1885 General Election as a Liberal Party candidate from the Paddington North constituency on a platform of legislative reform in India. He lost to Conservative Party candidate Lionel Louis Cohen by a margin of 685 votes (out of a total 5345 polled).[6]
The Indian Agency
In May 1888 he set up the Indian Political and General Agency in London for the purpose of raising awareness about Indian grievances in the British Parliament and Press.[7] He served as its secretary during 1887–1892. He became a strong advocate of constitutional reform and acted as an unofficial guide to Indian National Congress leaders visiting London. He used his political contacts (obtained through his position as the secretary of the National Liberal Club) to raise India's grievances in the British Public sphere. Through his lobbying he was able to get Charles Bradlaugh to attend the Fifth INC Conference held at Bombay in 1889. Bradlaugh also agreed to introduce a bill in British Parliament for establishing legislative councils in India. During this time Digby also worked as the editor of the Congress journal India. Though he was well paid for his efforts, the Congress office bearers in India delayed paying the expenditure for his lobbying efforts. Digby met those expenditures by doing private lobbying for the Maharaja of Kashmir. As part of his lobbying, he wrote a book titled "Condemned Unheard" advocating the Kashmiri king's position. This private lobbying and incidents of Digby and Bradlaugh receiving money from the Kashmiri king for presenting petitions to and raising questions in parliament alarmed Allan Octavian Hume. Hume set up the "British Committee of the Indian National Congress" to oversee the Indian Agency's work. The Committee did not want payments to be made to Bradlaugh through its books and completely ended its association with the Indian Agency in 1890. Digby served as the secretary to the British Committee from 1889 to 1892. Digby's continuing private lobbying efforts were a major embarrassment to the Congress and it cut its connections to Digby in September 1892.[8] This ended Digby's association with the Indian National Congress.
1892 election
Digby contested the 1892 General Election as the Liberal candidate from the South Islington parliamentary constituency. He lost to the Conservative candidate Albert Rollit by 321 votes.[9]
Death
Digby died on 29 September 1904.[1] Condoling his death, The Hindu Organ wrote that "..his death is a great loss to all eastern subjects of His Majesty".[2] Gandhi wrote an obituary in the Indian Opinion on 29 October 1904 which praised him as follows:
By the death of William Digby CIE, India has lost a champion, whom it will be difficult to replace. His advocacy of the Indian cause was strenuous and well-informed... By his voluminous writings, the late Mr. Digby ever kept the different Indian questions before the public.[10]
Bibliography
• The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876–1878, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (1878)
• Forty Years of Official and Unofficial Life in an Oriental Crown Colony, being the Life of Sir Richard Morgan (1879)
• Indian Problems for English Consideration (1881)
• India for the Indians — and for England (1885)
• The general election, 1885. India's interest in the British ballot box (1885)
• 1857: A friend in need 1887: Friendship forgotten, An episode in Indian Foreign Office Administration (1890)
• Condemned Unheard: The Government of India and H.H. the Maharaja of Kashmir: a Letter to the Rt. Hon. Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth (1890)
• Prosperous British India – A Revelation from Official Records (1901)
See also
• 'Prosperous' British India
• Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760)
• British Raj
Notes
1. Riddick, P.256
2. Martyn, P.277
3. Kaminsky, P.237
4. William Digby and the Indian Question by Mira Matikkala
5. Digby(Famine Campaign Vol 2), P.1
6. Debrett, P.219
7. Owen, P.31
8. Owen, P.32-36
9. Constitutional Year Book 1914, p.113
10. Gandhi, P.285
References
• Brown, Frank Herbert (1912). "Digby, William" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Digby, William (1878), The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876–1878, Volume 1, London: Longmans, Green and Co
• Digby, William (1878), The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876–1878, Volume 2, London: Longmans, Green and Co
• Kaminsky, Arnold. P (1986), The India Office, 1880–1910, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-24909-1
• Martyn, John. H (2003) [1923], Martyn's notes on Jaffna: chronological, historical, biographical, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, ISBN 81-206-1670-7
• Gandhi, Mohandas K (1958), Collected Works, Volume 4, New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India
• Kaul, Chandrika; Brown, 'F. H. "Digby, William (1849–1904)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32823. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Owen, Nicholas (2007), The British left and India: metropolitan anti-imperialism, 1885–1947, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-923301-4
• Mair, Robert Henry (1886), Debrett's House of Commons, London: Dean and Son
• The Constitutional year book, Volume 1914, National Unionist Association of Conservative and Liberal Unionist Organizations, 1914
• Riddick, John F. (2006), The history of British India: a chronology, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-32280-5
External links
• Famine Campaigns in Southern India: Volume 1, Volume 2
• 1857:A friend in need 1887: Friendship forgotten An episode in Indian Foreign Office Administration
• Prosperous British India – A Revelation
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William Digby
Dictionary of National Biography
1912
DIGBY, WILLIAM (1849–1904), Anglo-Indian publicist, third son of William Digby of Walsoken, Wisbech, by his wife Ann Drake, was born there on 1 May 1849. Scantily educated at the British schools, Wisbech, he studied for himself, and from 1864 to 1871 was apprentice in the office of the 'Isle of Ely and Wisbech Advertiser.' In 1871 he went out to Colombo as sub-editor of the 'Ceylon Observer.' There he advocated temperance and free trade, proved successful in his effort to abolish revenue farming, and publishing 'The Food Taxes of Ceylon' (1875) was elected in March 1878 an honorary member of the Cobden Club.
Cobden Club
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/24/21
Free trade · Peace · Goodwill amongst nations—publishing logo as used by the Cobden Club in 1881 works
The Cobden Club was a society and publishing imprint, based in London, run along the lines of a gentlemen's club of the Victorian era, but without permanent club premises of its own. Founded in 1866 by Thomas Bayley Potter[1] for believers in Free Trade doctrine, it was named in honour of Richard Cobden, who had died the year before. Potter was honorary secretary of the Cobden Club from its foundation until his death in 1898.[1]
Thomas Bayley Potter DL, JP (29 November 1817 – 6 November 1898) was an English merchant in Manchester and Liberal Party politician...
Potter became Chairman of the Manchester branch of the Complete Suffrage Society in 1830. While he was generally aligned with the Radicals, there was a rift between their leaders John Bright and Richard Cobden over the Crimean War, which the Potter brothers supported; and Sir John Potter successfully stood against Bright in 1857. Potter, who was in many ways a follower of Cobden, tried to smooth matters over at the end of the 1850s.
In 1863 Potter was the founder and president of the Union and Emancipation Society. Initially simply the Emancipation Society, it was prompted by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation that had freed enslaved people on 1 January 1863. Potter put his own money into the organisation, which adopted the pamphleteering publicity tactics of the Anti-Corn Law League, and ran frequent meetings. It was joined by prominent supporters of the Union in the American Civil War, including Edward Dicey, J. S. Mill and Goldwin Smith.
In 1865, Potter entered the British House of Commons and sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale. This was the seat of Cobden, who had died that year. Potter kept it until 1895. In the House of Commons he was known as "Principles Potter".
Potter established the Cobden Club in 1866 and was honorary secretary until his death. He had proposed a "political science association" in a letter to J. S. Mill of 1864, taking as model the Social Science Association. It operated as a publisher, funded education in economics, and held an annual dinner, under a name suggested by Thorold Rogers. It was fundamentalist about free trade.
"the Manchester school". Potter as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, June 1877
A personal friend of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Potter also supported Italian unification. The finance for Garibaldi's purchase of the island of Caprera was arranged at a dinner given by him.
-- Thomas Bayley Potter, by Wikipedia
Unusually for contemporary clubs, it had a publishing arm. The publishing arm was instrumental in publishing Cobden's collected speeches in 1870, under the co-editorship of John Bright, one of the club's early patrons. Because of its Free Trade connection, it mainly attracted Liberals as members, but with the fading of both the Liberals as a national force, and of Free Trade as a popular cause, the club fell into decline in the 20th century. The popularity of Temperance reform among members also made it unappealing to potential recruits with the passing years.
In 1958 the Cobden Club, by now moribund, was taken over by the classical liberal activist Oliver Smedley.[2] Like many other clubs, it went through substantial financial difficulties in the late 1970s, and closed at the end of that decade.
It is unrelated to the Cobden Working Men's Club founded in Kensal Town, London in 1880 (other than their both having been named after the same person). Nor is it related to a later west London private restaurant and bar of that name founded in 1996, which claimed to be a "refounded" Cobden Club, but which had no connection to the old club, and had no political affiliation,[3][4] and later closed.
See also
• List of London's gentlemen's clubs
References
1. Manchester Faces & Places (Vol X, No 3 ed.). London & Manchester: JG Hammond & Co Ltd. December 1898. pp. 42–46.
2. Richard Cockett, Thinking the Unthinkable. Think-Tanks and the Economic Counter-Revolution, 1931–1983 (London: Fontana, 1995), p. 126.
3. "Cobden Club - Welcome to Cooper and Dean Events".
4. http://www.rockabaret.co.uk Archived 2007-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
As official shorthand-writer for the legislative council, he prepared six volumes of the Ceylon 'Hansard' (1871-6).
In 1877 he became editor of the 'Madras Times,' and persistently urged the need of alleviating the great Southern Indian famine. Largely owing to his representations a relief fund was opened at the Mansion House in London, and 820,000l. was subscribed. He was active as honorary secretary in India of the executive committee, which distributed relief through 120 local committees. He was made C.I.E. on 1 Jan. 1878, and in his 'Famine Campaign in Southern India' (1878, 2 vols.) faithfully described the visitation.
Returning to England in 1879 for domestic reasons, Digby edited the 'Liverpool and Southport Daily News' for a few months in 1880, and from that year to 1882 was editor of the 'Western Daily Mercury' at Plymouth. From Nov. 1882 till 1887 he was the energetic secretary of the newly founded National Liberal Club in London, and eagerly flung himself into political work. He contested unsuccessfully in the liberal interest North Paddington in 1885 and South Islington in 1892. In 1887 he established, and became senior partner of, the firm of William Hutchinson & Co., East India agents and merchants. Meanwhile he pursued in the press and on the platform with almost fanatical warmth the agitation for extending self-government among the natives of India. In 1885 he published 'India for the Indians and for England,' a book praised by John Bright in a speech at St. James's Hall on 25 Feb. 1885. In 1887 he founded, and until 1892 he directed, the Indian political agency, which distributed information about India to the English public. In 1889 he became secretary to the newly constituted British committee of the Indian national congress, and he edited the committee's organ, 'India' (1890-2). In 'Prosperous British India' (1901) he claimed to prove a steady growth of poverty among the Indian masses under British rule.
Digby died from nervous exhaustion at his home, Dorset Square, London, N.W., on 24 Sept. 1904, and was buried by the side of his second wife at Bromley cemetery. An oil-painting of him by John Colin Forbes, R.C.A., was presented to the National Liberal Club by friends and admirers on 19 Dec. 1905. He married (1) in 1874, Ellen Amelia, only daughter of Captain Little of Wisbech; she died in June 1878, leaving one son, William Pollard Digby, electrical engineer; and (2) in December 1879, Sarah Maria, eldest daughter of William Hutchinson, some time mayor of Wisbech; she died in January 1899, leaving a daughter and three sons, the eldest of whom, Everard, has been editor of the 'Indian Daily News,' Calcutta.
Besides many pamphlets and the works cited, Digby published 'Forty Years of Official and Unofficial Life in a Crown Colony' (Madras, 1879, 2 vols.), being a biography of Sir Richard F. Morgan, acting chief justice in Ceylon.
[Digby's books and pamphlets; Biographical Mag., July 1885; Isle of Ely and Wisbech Advertiser, 24 and 27 Sept. 1904, and 20 Dec. 1905; personal knowledge.]
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The Ceylon Observer
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/24/21
The Ceylon Observer
Fiat justitia
Front page of The Observer and Commercial Advertiser first issue, 4 February 1834
Type Daily newspaper
Owner(s): Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited
Founded: 4 February 1834
Language: English
Ceased publication: February 1982
City: Colombo
Country: Sri Lanka
Sister newspapers: Ceylon Daily News; Dinamina; Silumina; Sunday Observer; Thinakaran; Thinakaran Varamanjari
OCLC number: 1781404
The Ceylon Observer was an English language daily newspaper in Sri Lanka published by Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL). It was founded in 1834 as The Observer and Commercial Advertiser and was published from Colombo. It ceased publication in 1982.
History
The Observer and Commercial Advertiser was started on 4 February 1834 by Colombo based British merchants.[1][2] It was under the control of E. J. Darley who was also its first editor.[3] The merchants then appointed George Winter editor.[3] The paper was published on Mondays and Thursdays but later became an afternoon daily.[2][4] In its first year the paper's editor and publishers were tried for libel after the paper printed a letter criticising the superintendent of police but were acquitted.[1]
Christopher Elliott, colonial surgeon for Badulla, became editor of the paper in 1835 and later its owner.[1][3] Elliott changed the name of the paper to The Colombo Observer.[1] The paper was critical of Governor Wilmot-Horton's administration which resulted in a pro-government paper, The Ceylon Chronicle, being established by a group of civil servants in 1837.[5][6] The Colombo Observer supported Governor Stewart-Mackenzie's administration but opposed the Campbell and Torrington administrations.[1] A monthly (later fortnightly, then weekly) sister newspaper, The Overland Observer, commenced in 1840.[3]
Alastair Mackenzie Ferguson joined the staff of The Colombo Observer in 1846 and bought the paper in 1859 after Elliott became the Principal Officer of the newly created Civil Medical Department.[3][7] Ferguson's nephew John Ferguson joined the paper in 1861.[7] The paper changed its name to The Ceylon Observer in 1867.[3][7] John Ferguson became joint-editor in 1870 and a partner in 1875.[3] Following A. M. Ferguson's death in 1892 John Ferguson became editor of the paper.[7] John Ferguson was succeeded as editor by his son Ronald Haddon Ferguson.[3]
The paper was bought by a company owned by the European Association of Ceylon in 1920.[8] D. R. Wijewardena bought the paper in 1923, adding it to his growing media empire (later known as Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited).[9] A Sunday edition of the paper, the Sunday Observer, commenced on 4 February 1928.[10]
In the early twentieth century The Ceylon Observer and its sister newspaper Ceylon Daily News actively campaigned for constitutional change in Ceylon.[11] ANCL and its rival Times of Ceylon Limited (TOCL) dominated the newspaper industry when Ceylon obtained independence from Britain in 1948.[2] The ANCL newspapers were seen as pro-United National Party.[2] In July 1973 the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led United Front government nationalised ANCL.[2] The legislation which nationalised the ANCL, the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Special Provisions) Law No. 28 of 1973, required broad basing of its publications but successive governments have failed to carry this out and ANCL is today still the largest newspaper company in Sri Lanka. Its various publications are slavishly pro-government irrespective of which party is in power.[2]
The Ceylon Observer ceased publishing in February 1982.[12] The Sunday Observer, which is still in circulation, is sometimes referred to being the same newspaper as The Ceylon Observer.[8][13]
References
1. "Periodicals and Newspapers in Ceylon" (PDF). Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon. XXXI (4): 137–152. April 1942. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
2. Karunanayake, Nandana (2008). "18: Sri Lanka". In Banerjee, Indrajit; Logan, Stephen (eds.). Asian Communication Handbook 2008. Singapore: Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. pp. 446–460. ISBN 9789814136105.
3. Beven, Francis. "The Press". In Wright, Arnold (ed.). Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon. Asian Educational Services. pp. 301–319.
4. "Ceylon Times' begins publication". The Sunday Times. 9 July 2006.
5. "Significant events in May: An English newspaper". The Sunday Times. 30 April 2006.
6. Scott, Andrew (15 May 2012). "Newspapers and journals in early Sri Lanka". Daily News.
7. Martyn, John H. (1923). Notes on Jaffna – Chronological, Historical, Biographical (PDF). Tellippalai: American Ceylon Mission Press. pp. 205–206. ISBN 81-206-1670-7.
8. "The 'Observer' is 180 years old". Daily FT. 31 May 2014.
9. "Newspaper proliferation and the vanishing tribe" (PDF). The Nation. 20 May 2007.
10. Chandrarathne, Ranga (3 February 2008). "Sunday Observer 80th Anniversary: Eighty years in print". Sunday Observer.
11. Salgado, Upali (1 February 1998). "Those good ole days!". The Sunday Times.
12. "1834–1982, English, Periodical, Newspaper edition: Ceylon observer". National Library of Australia.
13. "Till we meet again". Daily News. 1 March 2002.
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The Madras Times
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/24/21
The Madras Times
Type: Daily newspaper
Language: English
Headquarters: Madras
Country: India
The Madras Times was an English-language newspaper which was published in the then Madras Presidency from 1835 to 1921.
History
Chennai-historian, S. Muthiah claims that The Madras Times was founded as a bi-weekly in 1835-36, though most sources point to 1859, the year of its supposed acquisition by Gantz and Sons, as the founding date of the newspaper. Gantz and Sons also acquired The Spectator, the first major newspaper in South India. The paper was converted to a daily in 1860.
The Madras Times flourished throughout the second half of the 19th century. [b]During the 1870s and 1880s, the paper was edited by William Digby Seymour [NO, William Digby (writer) [above]!], the celebrated Indophile.
The Madras Times was purchased by business magnate John Oakshott Robinson in 1921. The paper was subsequently merged with The Mail.
Orientation
The newspaper was liberal in its views and favoured amicable relationship between the British who ruled India and the Indian inhabitants. The paper was edited by Charles Cornish and Henry Cornish in 1860s. The duo were later embroiled in a dispute with the management and quit to start The Madras Mail which was the Times' most popular rival and opponent throughout the late 1800s.
References
• Muthiah, S. (2004). Madras Rediscovered. East West Books (Madras) Pvt Ltd. pp. 51–53. ISBN 81-88661-24-4.