William Thomas Stead

William Thomas Stead (5 July 1849 – 15 April 1912) was an English newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era.

Biography.

Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, including his 1885 series of articles, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. These were written in support of a bill, later dubbed the “Stead Act”, that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.

Stead’s “new journalism” paved the way for the modern tabloid in Great Britain. He has been described as “the most famous journalist in the British Empire”. He is considered to have influenced how the press could be used to influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated “Government by Journalism”. He was known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation, and the reformation of England’s criminal codes.

Stead died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Early life

Stead was born in Embleton, Northumberland on July 5, 1849, the son of the Reverend William Stead, a poor and respected Congregational minister, and Isabella (née Jobson), a cultivated daughter of a Northumberland farmer, John Jobson of Warkworth. A year later the family moved to Howdon on the River Tyne, where his younger brother, Francis Herbert Stead, was born. Stead was largely educated at home by his father, and by the age of five, he was already well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and is said to have been able to read Latin almost as well as he could read English. It was Stead’s mother who perhaps had the most lasting influence on her son’s career. One of Stead’s favorite childhood memories was of his mother leading a local campaign against the government’s controversial Contagious Diseases Acts – which required prostitutes living in garrison towns to undergo medical examination.

From 1862 to 1864, he attended Silcoates School in Wakefield until he was apprenticed to a merchant’s office on the Quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he became a clerk.