Herbert
Ingram was born at Boston, Lincolnshire on 27th May 1811. After being
educated at the local free school he became an apprentice in the printing
trade. When Ingram finished his training he moved to London
where he worked as a journeyman printer.
In 1832 Ingram established his own printing and newsagents business
in Nottingham. As a newsagent he noticed
that when on the rare occasions that newspapers included woodcuts,
their sales increased. He therefore came to the conclusion that it
would be possible to make a good profit from a magazine that included
a large number of illustrations.
Ingram moved back to London and after discussing
the matter with his friend, Mark Lemon, the
editor of Punch, he decided to start
his own magazine. With Lemon as his chief adviser, the first edition
of the Illustrated London News
appeared on 14th May 1842. Costing sixpence, the magazine had sixteen
pages and thirty-two woodcuts.
Ingram was a staunch Liberal who favoured
social reform. He announced in the Illustrated
London Newsthat the concern of the magazine would be "with
the English poor" and the "three essential elements of discussion
with us will be the poor laws, the factory laws, and the working of
the mining system". The magazine was an immediate success and
the first edition sold 26,000 copies. Within a few months it was selling
over 65,000 copies a week. High prices were charged for advertisements
and Ingram was soon making £12,000 a year from this publishing
venture.
In 1856
Ingram became the Liberal candidate in
a by-election in his home town of Boston. With help from his friend
Mark Lemon and Douglas
Jerrold at Punch, and from the
team at the Illustrated London News,
Ingram advocated a policy of social reform. Ingram told the people
of Boston they needed a a "representative who is at once the
product and the embodiment of the progressive spirit of the age".
The electorate responded to Ingram's message and he won an overwhelming
victory. However, several daily newspapers attacked Punch
and the London Illustrated News
for the part they had played in Ingram's victory.
In 1860 Ingram went to America with his eldest son to obtain material
for the Illustrated London News.
On 8th September, Ingram was on board the Lady
Elgin, when the ship was sunk after colliding with another
vessel on Lake Michigan. Herbert Ingram, his son, and nearly all the
passengers were drowned.
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