James Louis Garvin

James Louis Garvin (1913)

James Louis Garvin (born April 12, 1868 in Birkenhead , † January 23, 1947 in Beaconsfield (Buckinghamshire) ) was a British journalist , editor and author. In 1908 Garvin agreed to take over the publication of the Sunday newspaper The Observer , to revolutionize Sunday journalism and to bring the newspaper, which was then faced with financial problems, back into profit.

Youth and early years in journalism

Garvin was born in Birkenhead, the younger of two children. His father, Michael Garvin, was an impoverished Irish laborer who died at sea when Garvin was two and had him raised by his mother Catherine. Though a voracious reader, he dropped out of school at the age of thirteen and worked first as a messenger, then as a clerk. His older brother Michael became a teacher. Its status as the main source of income for the family led her to move to Hull first in 1884 and then to Newcastle upon Tyne five years later .

Despite taking a civil service exam, Garvin longed to become an editor from an early age. As a teenager, he wrote letters and articles for the Eastern Morning News and the Dublin Weekly Freeman , many of which reflected his earlier advocacy of Home Rule . In 1891 Garvin applied to Joseph Cowen for a position on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle . In a position as proofreader and occasional contributor, Garvin spent the next eight years honing his journalist skills, with Cowen being his mentor and father figure. Garvin longed for a bigger stage, however, and by the end of the decade he became a regular (albeit anonymous) part of the Fortnightly Review , which was then edited by William Leonard Courtney .

Garvin's ambition, however, extended beyond Newcastle upon Tyne . Through his association with Courtney, Garvin gained a senior position as a writer for the Daily Telegraph in 1899 . When he moved to London, his writings on politics and literature soon made him famous. By now his policy had changed when he became a unionist and supporter of Joseph Chamberlain . In 1904 Garvin took on the editing of The Outlook , a weekly publication that turned into a platform to promote legislative initiative for a Chamberlain Imperial Preference . Although The Outlook saw a rapid increase in circulation and influence, it failed to make it profitable, which led to the newspaper's sale two years later and Garvin's departure from the newspaper.

The Observer's pre-war editorial team

James Louis Garvin, cartoon from Vanity Fair , 1911

Soon after leaving The Outlook , Garvin was approached by Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe . Although he turned down a lucrative offer to write for Northcliffe's flagship, the 1908 Daily Mail had committed to take over the publishing of the historic Sunday newspaper The Observer . The paper was first published in 1791 and shortly before had to contend with financial problems that led to its takeover by Northcliffe. Within 80 months, Garvin had reshaped The Observer, revolutionized Sunday journalism and made the newspaper profitable again.

After the Unionist Party had recovered from its massive defeat in the parliamentary elections of 1906 , Garvin soon became a dominant figure in its politics. Using The Observer as a platform, he opposed the draft budget introduced into Parliament by Treasury Secretary David Lloyd George in 1909 , and encouraged the Unionist-dominated House of Lords to veto. When the question of the Home Rule for Ireland ("Government of Ireland Act 1914") became increasingly a topic of British politics, Garvin pleaded for a federalist solution to the problem.

In 1911 a conflict between Garvin and Northcliffe over the question of customs reform became evident. When their dispute became public, the press baron agreed to sell the newspaper to William Waldorf Astor , who accepted Garvin's proposal to take over the ownership, provided that Garvin also edited the Pall Mall Gazette owned by Astor. In 1915 Astor bequeathed the two sheets to his son Waldorf as a birthday present; Waldorf Astor then sold the Pall Mall Gazette , which allowed Garvin to give up his editor-in-chief of this newspaper and concentrate on the publication of The Observer .

First World War

Since Garvin was enthusiastic about German culture, he was alarmed by the growing challenge that the German Reich posed in international politics towards Great Britain. His friendship with First Sea Lord Admiral John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher , gave him access to inside information on naval affairs, which he used to notify editors who were calling for a major naval construction program. When war broke out in 1914, Garvin welcomed Britain's involvement in the conflict. He was close to many rulers, most notably Fisher (who retired as First Sea Lord shortly after the conflict began), David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill , who had retired, and was a huge influence during this period.

But the conflict brought Garvin great personal tragedy. At the beginning of the war, his only son, Roland Gerard Garvin (known as "Ged") registered with the South Lancashire Regiment and was shipped to France. A staff position was temporarily assigned, but shortly after the start of the Battle of the Somme , Ged returned to a combat post and was killed in a night attack on a German position in late July. Upon his loss, Garvin was never recovered from his death and shaped many of his attitudes towards subsequent events.

Despite his bitterness towards the Germans, Garvin believed in the need for a just solution to the war. Soon after the armistice, he published his first book, The Economic Foundations of Peace, in which he called for a lenient treaty and Anglo-American cooperation as the cornerstone of an effective League of Nations. When the penal provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were published, he condemned it in an editorial for leaving the Germans with "no real hope but vengeance".

After 1921

In 1921 Garvin moved from London to Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire . From there, he continued to work in a house that once belonged to Edmund Burke's agent as editor of The Observer, and began working on the biography of his hero Joseph Chamberlain . Although three volumes of the Chamberlain biography were published in the early 1930s, Garvin never wrote the final fourth volume, and the project was completed by Julian Amery after his death . During this time Garvin was also editor-in-chief of the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1926–1932).

However, Garvin's greatness as a writer masked his diminishing influence during this period. Beaconsfield's work cut him off from the political life of the British capital. A new generation of British politicians emerged with whom Garvin had few connections. Frightened by the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, he pushed for a rearmament program. He also became an advocate of appeasement, both from Hitler to buy time for rearmament and from Benito Mussolini to win the support of the Italian leader for an alliance.

Garvin, saddened by the outbreak of war in September 1939, nevertheless strongly supported the war effort. Enthusiastic about Churchill's return to the Admiralty, Garvin offered tireless support to his old friend when he took office in May 1940. That support created a rift between Garvin and Astor. Though the two were similar in terms of appeasement fears, Astor disagreed with the concentration of executive power in Churchill's wartime government . Adding to the tension was the son of Astor David, whose attempts to bring a more liberal tone to the paper were seen by Garvin as an attempt to criticize the Prime Minister. When Garvin published an editorial in February 1942 in which Churchill remained in office as defense minister and prime minister, the Astors saw the treaty as a breach of contract and demanded Garvin's resignation.

Garvin quickly received an offer from Lord Beaverbrook to write a weekly column for his newspaper, the Sunday Express. In January 1945 he moved to The Daily Telegraph and wrote a weekly column until shortly before his death at the age of 78 from pneumonia.

Personal life

Garvin was married twice. In 1894 he married Christina Ellen Wilson, who gave birth to his son Ged and four daughters: Viola, Una, Katherine and Ursula. After Christina's death in 1918, Garvin married Viola Woods (née Taylor), the former wife of the conservative politician Maurice Henry Woods.

Works

• The Economic Foundations of Peace: or world partnership as the truer basis of the League of Nations. Macmillan and Co. 1919.
• The Life of Joseph Chamberlain. Macmillan and Co. 1932 three of four volumes.

Web links

• Working papers of David Ayerst for his biography of JL Garvin , a special collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University
• Find a grave [5]
• Newspaper article about James Louis Garvin in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Imperial Preference was a legislative initiative for a system of reciprocal tariff preferences between the ruled territories and the colonies of the British Empire. As a preference of the Commonwealth, the proposal was later revived with regard to the members of the Commonwealth of Nations .
2. ^ National Portrait Gallery (London) , James Garvin
3. ↑ The Guardian , 20 September 2009, Letters to the editor… from his dear lad in the trenches [1]
4. ^ The Guardian , Observer text timeline, [2]
5. ↑ Time Magazine , March 16, 1942, Garvin Gets Out, [3]
6. ^ Maurice Henry Woods, (1882-1929) Private Secretary to Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook . 1915-1966: corresp with Lord Beaverbrook (1915-29), and between Beaverbrook and Mrs Georgina Woods (1929-66) ; David Ayerst, Garvin of the Observer, [4]