William
Stead, the son of a Congregational
minister, was born in Embleton in 1849. William spent his childhood
at Howden, about five miles from Newcastle.
Educated at home by his father, William grew up with strong views
on religion. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a merchant
but this failed to interest him and he eventually became a journalist.
In 1871 he moved to Darlington where he became editor of the Northern
Echo. Stead was a strict Puritan who favoured social reform.
He declared soon after becoming editor of the newspaper, "the
Press is the greatest agency for influencing public opinion in the
world" and that "the true and only lever by which thrones
and governments could be shaken and the masses of the people raised".
Stead successfully made the Northern Echo
the most influential voice of Nonconformity
in the North of England. His newspaper supported several causes and
organisations, including universal education, votes for women, repeal
of the Contagious Acts, Irish
Home Rule, the Salvation Army and
the Liberal Party.
Stead moved to London in 1880 where John Morley
employed him as a journalist on the Pall Mall
Gazette. Three years later, Morley was elected to the House
of Commons and Stead was promoted to editor. William Stead now
had the opportunity of developing his ideas on journalism. The Pall
Mall Gazette featured banner headlines, shorter paragraphs
in a readable style, with considerable use of illustrations, diagrams
and maps to break up the text. Stead published a high percentage of
human interest stories and used the paper to campaign for various
causes. He wrote in his private journal that he intended to "lead
the leaders of our race in its upward striving, hearing new words
of command in every cry of the sorrowing and goaded."
In 1883 the Pall Mall Gazette carried
a series of articles on the subject of child prostitution. Stead now
joined with Josephine Butler and Bramwell
Booth of the Salvation Army to expose
what had become known as the white slave traffic.
In July 1885 Stead purchased for £5, Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen
year-old daughter of a chimney-sweep, to show how easy it was to procure
young girls for prostitution. Stead published an account of his investigations
in the Pall Mall Gazette entitled Maiden
Tribute of Modern Babylon.
In September, William Stead and five others were charged with unlawfully
kidnapping a minor and committed for trial at the Old
Bailey. Stead was found guilty and was imprisoned for three months
in Holloway Gaol. As a result of the publicity that the Armstrong
case generated, Parliament in 1885 passed the Criminal
Law Amendment Act that raised the age of consent from thirteen
to sixteen and strengthened existing legislation against prostitution.
Stead supported the growth of the trade union movement and played
an important role in the success of the Matchgirls
Strike in 1888. He condemned the action of the police after the
Trafalgar Square Bloody Sunday affair.
Stead helped Annie Besant to form the Law
and Liberty League and used the Pall Mall Gazette
to try and save Florence Maybrick and Mildred Langworthy from the
gallows.
Stead was also a strong supporter of women's rights. A good friend
of Annie Besant, Josephine
Butler and Millicent Garrett Fawcett,
Stead was proud of the fact that he was the first editor to employ
women on the same pay as men.
William Stead took a deep interest in exploring different ways to
reduce poverty in Britain. He campaigned against the Poor
Law, advocated old age pensions and supported the charity work
of the Salvation Army. In 1890 Stead
helped William Booth to write In
Darkest England and the Way Out.
Stead worked hard for an end to the arms race and was fully committed
to the principle of arbitration and to the International Court of
Justice. In 1899 he advocated an end to conflict with South
Africa and as a result of his membership of the Stop the War Committee
and his special periodical, War Against War
in South Africa, Stead was accused of being pro-Boer.
In 1912 William Stead was asked to speak at a international conference
on world peace and international arbitration at Carnegie Hall, New
York. Stead accepted and decided to travel to America on the Titanic.
It was later reported that he made no attempt to get into the final
lifeboats and was last seen standing upright on the deck in prayer.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
