Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet

Pearson was born on 24 February 1866 in the village of Wookey, Somerset, a son of Arthur Cyril Pearson and Phillippa Massingberd Maxwell Lyte, who was a granddaughter of the hymn-writer and poet Henry Francis Lyte. He was educated at Winchester College in Hampshire.Wainewright, 1907. p. 379 His father became rector of Drayton Parslow in Buckinghamshire.District 16, Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire, England 1881 Census His first job was as a journalist working for the London-based publisher George Newnes on Tit-Bits magazine. Within his first year he had impressed Newnes enough to be made his principal assistant.{{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Howard|last2=Mowatt|first2=Simon|title=Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain|date=2014|publisher=OUP|isbn=9780199601639|pages=29–30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKzSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 }}

In December 1887, Pearson married Isobel Sarah Bennett, the daughter of Canon Frederick Bennett, of Maddington, Wiltshire, with whom he had three daughters.{{cite book|last=Weaver|first=J. R. H.|title=The Dictionary of National Biography|year=1927|page=429}} In 1897, Pearson married, as his second wife, Ethel, daughter of William John Fraser. Ethel, Lady Pearson, would be appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). The couple had a son, Neville (birth registered in Farnham, Q1 1898), and three daughters.{{cite web|title=The Life of Sir Arthur Pearson|url=https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/TheLifeofSirArthurPearson_10194230|publisher=Forgotten Books|access-date=8 October 2015}}

In 1890, after six years of working for Newnes, Pearson left to form his own publishing business and within three weeks had created the periodical journal Pearson's Weekly, the first issue of which sold a quarter of a million copies. A philanthropist, in 1892 he established the charitable Fresh Air Fund, still in operation and now known as Pearson's Holiday Fund, to enable disadvantaged children to partake in outdoor activities. In 1898, he purchased the Morning Herald, and in 1900 merged it into his new creation, the halfpenny Daily Express.{{cite web|url=https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/english-school/british-newspapers-in-the-nineteenth-century-daily-express-litho/lithograph/asset/7155469 |title=British Newspapers in the Nineteenth Century: Daily Express |publisher=Bridgeman Images}}{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/streetofinkintim00simouoft/page/76/mode/2up |title=Street of Ink: An Intimate History of Journalism by H. Simonis (New York : Funk & Wagnalls, 1917) |date=1917 |publisher=Internet Archive}}

The Express was a departure from the papers of its time and created an immediate impact by carrying news instead of only advertisements on its front page. He was successful in establishing papers in provincial locations such as the Birmingham Daily Gazette. He came into direct competition with the Daily Mail and in the resulting commercial fight almost took control of The Times, being nominated as its manager, but the deal fell through.{{cite book|last=Fritzinger|first=Linda|title=Diplomat without Portfolio: Valentine Chirol, His Life and Times|date=2006|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=9780857712134|page=324|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzABAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA324 }}

File:Arthur_Pearson.jpg cartoon, January 15, 1908, making fun of Daily Express founder Arthur Pearson's appointment as manager of The Times]]

In 1898, Pearson founded The Royal Magazine, a monthly literary magazine which remained in publication until 1939.{{cite web |title=The Royal Magazine |url=http://www.philsp.com/data/data468.html#ROYALMAGAZINE |website=Galactic Central |access-date=27 August 2023}}

File:Arthur Pearson Vanity Fair 17 November 1904.jpg for Vanity Fair, 1904]]

In 1900 Pearson despatched the explorer and adventurer Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard to Patagonia to investigate dramatic reports of a giant hairy mammal inhabiting the forests, and conjectured to be a giant ground sloth, long since extinct.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1902/12/20/archives/patagonia-heskethprichards-stirring-tale-of-exploration-in-the-far.html|title=PATAGONIA; Hesketh-Prichard's Stirring Tale of Exploration in the Far South|date=20 December 1902|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=22 November 2008}} Hesketh-Prichard's reports from 5,000 miles away gripped readers of The Express, despite his finding no trace of the creature.

During this same period, Pearson was also active as a writer, and wrote a number of tourist guides to locations in Britain and Europe. Under the pseudonym of "Professor P. R. S. Foli", he wrote Handwriting as an Index to Character in 1902, as well as works on fortune-telling and dream interpretation. Pearson was a strong supporter of Joseph Chamberlain's tariff-reform movement, and organised the Tariff Reform League in 1903, becoming its first chairman. In 1904 he purchased the struggling The Standard and its sister paper the Evening Standard for £700,000 from the Johnstone family.

He merged the Evening Standard with his St James's Gazette and changed the Conservative stance of both papers into a pro-Liberal one, but was unsuccessful in arresting the slide in sales and in 1910 sold them to the MP Sir Davison Dalziel, and Sir Alexander Henderson.{{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Howard|last2=Mowatt|first2=Simon|title=Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199601639|page=45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKzSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 }}

File:Mat-weaving at St Dunstans.jpg

Beginning to lose his sight due to glaucoma despite a 1908 operation, Pearson was progressively forced from 1910 onwards to relinquish his newspaper interests; the Daily Express eventually passed, in November 1916, under the control of the Canadian–British tycoon Sir Max Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook.

Through the British and Foreign Blind Association, Pearson published his Pearson's Easy Dictionary in Braille form in 1912. Later completely blind, Pearson was made president of the National Institution for the Blind in 1914, raising its income from £8,000 to £360,000 in only eight years.{{cite book|last=Dark|first=Sydney|title=The life of Sir Arthur Pearson|year=1922|pages=140|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeofsirarthurp00darkuoft#page/140/mode/2up}} On 29 January 1915, he cofounded The Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care Committee (later renamed St Dunstan's and now known as Blind Veterans UK), for soldiers blinded by gas attack or trauma during the First World War.{{cite book|last=Rose|first=June|title=Changing Focus – The Development of Blind Welfare in Britain|publisher= Hutchinson|isbn= 0-09-100490-X|year= 1970}} Its goal, radical for the times, was to provide vocational training rather than charity for invalided servicemen, and thus to enable them to carry out independent and productive lives. Not only were blinded soldiers trained in work such as basket weaving or massage, but also in social skills such as dancing, braille reading or sports to give them back self-confidence. Upon releasing them, they were gifted little tokens of independence such as braille watches.{{cite web|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30083216|title=Braille Pocket Watch|publisher=Imperial War Museum|access-date=28 November 2023}}

Pearson's dedication to this work led to his receiving a baronetcy on 12 July 1916, whereupon he took the title Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet of St Dunstan's, London.{{London Gazette|issue=29730|page=8592|date=1 September 1916}} He received the GBE in 1917.{{cite book|last=Dark|first=Sydney|title=The life of Sir Arthur Pearson|year=1922|pages=195|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeofsirarthurp00darkuoft##page/195/mode/2up}}

Pearson was a close friend of the pioneer of the Scouting movement Baden-Powell, and supportive of his efforts in setting up the movement and publishing its magazine The Scout. When Pearson's scheme for publishing in Braille was faltering due to lack of funds, on 2 May 1914 Baden-Powell publicly requested that "all Scouts perform a 'good turn' for The Scout magazine publisher Mr C. Arthur Pearson, in order to raise money for his scheme of publishing literature in Braille for the blind."

In 1919, Pearson wrote the book Victory Over Blindness: How it Was Won by the Men of St Dunstan's.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/06/01/archives/sir-arthur-pearson-describes-the-great-victory-won-over-blindness.html|title=Sir Arthur Pearson describes the great victory won over blindness|date=1 June 1919|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=4 December 2008}} He founded the Greater London Fund for the Blind in 1921, funded by the establishment of its annual 'Geranium Day' appeal.{{cite web|url=https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/prime-minister-tony-blair-and-his-wife-cherie-buying-a-news-photo/829022604|title=Sir John Mills meets the Blairs|date=10 August 2017 |publisher=Getty Images| access-date=28 November 2023}}

Pearson died on 9 December 1921 when he drowned in his bath after knocking himself unconscious in a fall.{{cite book|last=Dark|first=Sydney|title=The life of Sir Arthur Pearson|year=1922|pages=203–204|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeofsirarthurp00darkuoft#page/204/mode/2up }} He was buried in Hampstead Cemetery after a service to which the Cabinet, the British and Norwegian royal families, and many institutes for the blind all sent official representatives. Two of his pallbearers were blind. He was survived by his wife, son and three daughters.{{cite book|last=Dark|first=Sydney|title=The life of Sir Arthur Pearson|year=1922|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeofsirarthurp00darkuoft#page/210/mode/2up|page=220}}

In 1922, a biography, The Life of Sir Arthur Pearson, was written by Sidney Dark and published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Pearson's publishing company, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., had had a cooperative relationship with Pearson's old employer, George Newnes Ltd, and as Pearson gradually gave up his publishing duties to due to his blindness, by 1914, Pearson had essentially become an imprint of Newnes.[http://www.magforum.com/general_weekly_magazines.htm "London Opinion [closed],"] MagForum. Retrieved 1 Apr. 2021. With Pearson's death, this arrangement was formalized, and in 1929, Newnes purchased all outstanding shares of Pearson's company.[https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/George_Newnes_Co "George Newnes Co,"] Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 1 Apr. 2021.

Decades after the founder's death, into the 1960s, the C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. imprint was one of London's four leading magazine publishers — along with Newnes, Odhams Press, and the Hulton Press. (By 1963, all three had become part of the International Publishing Corporation.)Birch, Paul. [http://blogs.birminghammail.net/speechballoon/2008/12/speaking-frankly.html "Speaking Frankly,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720075859/http://blogs.birminghammail.net/speechballoon/2008/12/speaking-frankly.html |date=20 July 2011 }} Birmingham Mail (14 December 2008).

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |first=Arthur |last=Pearson |year=1919 |title=Victory Over Blindness |url=https://archive.org/details/victoryoverblin00peargoog |publisher=George H. Doran}}
• {{cite book |first=Dark |last=Sidney |year=1922 |title=The Life of Sir Arthur Pearson |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton}}
• Fraser, Ian (1961) My Story of St Dunstan's.
• Wainewright, John Bannerman (ed) (1907) [https://archive.org/details/winchestercolleg00wincuoft Winchester College 1836–1906: A Register]. P. and G. Wells.

{{Commons category|Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet}}

{{Collier's Poster|Pearson, Sir Arthur}}

• [http://www.blindveterans.org.uk/ St Dunstan's institute for blind servicemen – Now Blind Veterans UK]
• [http://www.pearsonsholidayfund.org/ Pearson's Holiday Fund]

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(of St Dunstans)|years=1916 – 1921}}

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{{Daily Express editors}}

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Category:1866 births

Category:1921 deaths

Category:Accidental deaths in England

Category:English blind people

Category:British male journalists

Category:20th-century British newspaper founders

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People educated at Winchester College

Category:People from Mendip District

Category:Pearson baronets

Category:Place of death missing

Category:Deaths by drowning in the United Kingdom

Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Category:19th-century British journalists

Category:20th-century British journalists

Category:Blind scholars and academics