Henry William Massingham

He joined London paper The Star in 1888,{{Cite ODNB|id=34923|title=Massingham, Henry William}} and was promoted to editor in 1890.{{cite book |last1=Havighurst |first1=Alfred F. |title=Radical Journalist: H. W. Massingham (1860-1924) |date=1974 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url={{GBurl|id=stw5AAAAIAAJ}} |access-date=18 May 2019}} In 1888 as deputy editor to T. P. O'Connor[http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/famousgaels/stories/tpoconnor.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725055316/http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/famousgaels/stories/tpoconnor.htm|date=July 25, 2008}} he had given George Bernard Shaw his break in journalism, appointing him deputy drama critic to Belfort Bax.Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw (1997 one-volume edition), p. 121.

He edited the Daily Chronicle 1897–1899, but in November 1899 was forced out because his editorial line on the Second Boer War was hostile to the government.Alfred F. Havighurst, Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century (1985), p. 9.

His departure from The Nation was a matter of party politics: he had broken from the Liberals under David Lloyd George, in favour of the Labour Party. A change of ownership was putting control in the hands of John Maynard Keynes, a Liberal. In July 1914, with the threat of war and refusal of the government to deny the possibility of British involvement, Massingham and H. N. Brailsford voiced their opposition to intervention in The Nation as did other Liberals in the Manchester Guardian, The Economist, and Daily News.{{Cite book|last=Pearce|first=Cyril|title=Comrades in Conscience. The story of an English community's opposition to the Great War.|publisher=Francis Boutle Publishers|year=2014|isbn=978-1-903427-82-8|location=London|pages=49}} In 1917, as editor signing himself 'A.Wayfarer' wrote of the use of "Alec Gordon", withheld from the witness box, in the Wheeldon trial after 'being used as an instrument in getting a conviction." Giving an account of questions in the Commons (William Anderson MP for a Sheffield constituency) as to "Gordon" being a 'provoking agent', Massingham details the statements by Labor leaders about similar conspiratorial approaches made by "Gordon" ('to kidnap the Prime Minister'), demanding to know what action is taken, since 'a graver charge has not been made against a British administration since the days of Peterloo.'{{Cite news |last=Massingham |first=Henry |date=2 June 1917 |title=A London Diary. |work=The Nation |pages=217}}

Massingham during the short remainder of his life was a columnist, in the Christian Science Monitor and The Spectator.{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,750985,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222150442/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,750985,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2008|title=The Press: Massingham Laments|date=22 October 1923|work=Time|access-date=19 November 2014}}

Massingham married Emma Jane Snowdon by whom he had his family. After her death he married her sister Ellen Snowdon. They were two of the daughters of Henry Snowdon of St. Leonards Priory in Norwich.

Massingham was also the father of Dr. Richard Massingham who became well known for his direction of public information films at about the time of World War II. The writer Harold J. Massingham was another son, and the playwright and actress Dorothy Massingham was his daughter.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://archive.org/details/whywecametohelpb00massuoft Why We Came to Help Belgium], online text
• H. W. M.: A selection from the writings of H. W. Massingham (1925)
• Alfred F. Havighurst (1974), [https://archive.org/details/radicaljournalis0000havi Radical Journalist: H.W. Massingham, 1860-1924]

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry William Massingham}}
• [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/Jmassingham.htm Spartacus page]
• {{PM20|FID=pe/019494}}

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{{succession box | before=T. P. O'Connor | title=Editor of The Star| years=1890–1891 | after=Ernest Parke}}

{{succession box|title=Editor of the Daily Chronicle|years=1895 – 1899|before=Alfred Ewen Fletcher|after=W. J. Fisher}}

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Category:1860 births

Category:1924 deaths

Category:People educated at Norwich School

Category:English male journalists

Category:English male non-fiction writers

Category:British people of World War I

Category:Members of the Fabian Society