Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Borthwick, Algernon
BORTHWICK, Sir ALGERNON, first Baron Glenesk (1830–1908), proprietor of the 'Morning Post,' born at Cambridge on 27 Dec. 1830, was elder son in the family of two sons and a daughter of Peter Borthwick [q. v.], editor of the 'Morning Post,' who belonged to a Midlothian branch of the ancient Borthwick family of Selkirkshire. His mother was Margaret (d. 1864), daughter of John Colville of Ewart, Northumberland. After education at a school in Paris and at King's College School, London, Algernon in Sept. 1850, before he was twenty, was sent to Paris as foreign correspondent of the 'Morning Post.' The finances of the paper were at a low ebb and compelled the utmost economy. Algernon's work was controlled by his father, but he quickly proved himself a journalist of ability and resource. He witnessed the coup d'état of 1851, and gained access to the Emperor Napoleon III and the leading public men in Paris. His later letters were warmly praised by Lord Palmerston, whose intimate connection with the 'Morning Post' was a matter of common knowledge and who, after reading one of Algernon's letters, declared that the young correspondent was the only man besides himself fit to be foreign secretary. On the death of Algernon's father on 18 Dec. 1852 the proprietor, Mr. Crompton, appointed Algernon, then twenty-two, his father's successor as editor. The ensuing years were full of labour and anxiety. Great efforts were needed to render the paper secure and profitable: and upon Algernon devolved the care of his mother and her younger children. In 1858, on Crompton's death, the ownership of the paper passed to Mr. Rideout, Crompton's nephew. Borthwick made an offer of purchase, which was not accepted, and he remained editor, with a share in the profits and the promise of first offer in the event of a sale at Rideout's death. Borthwick quickly acquired full control of the paper. Foreign affairs specially interested him. He kept in close communication with ministers and diplomatists whose acquaintance he had made in Paris, and he maintained the intimacy with Palmerston which his father had begun. In 1864 Borthwick varied his serious editorial work by joining Evelyn Ashley [q. v. Suppl. II], Lord Wharncliffe, and James Stuart Wortley in producing a periodical called the 'Owl.' The experiment, which ran on somewhat frivolous lines, was a forerunner of 'society' journalism. The writers dealt freely and anonymously with private and personal matters. Amongst the many regular or occasional contributors were Lord Houghton, Bernal Osborne, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, Sir George Trevelyan, and Mr. Gibson Bowles. The paper only appeared when the editors found it convenient usually once a fortnight during the summer, and the profits were spent mainly on dinners. In an early number an imaginary letter from M. Mocquard, secretary to Napoleon III, drew from him an official repudiation. The comments on foreign politics usually mingled gravity with caricature. The 'Owl,' which proved unexpectedly successful, lived for six years, and only died in 1870, when Borthwick was deprived of the leisure necessary to its conduct.
In 1872 Borthwick, while retaining full direction of the 'Morning Post' and maintaining and extending in the paper's interest his interviews with leading men at home and abroad, installed Sir William Hardman (d. 1890) in his place of working editor of the 'Morning Post.' In 1876, on the death of Rideout the proprietor, with the aid of a loan which he was able in a few years to repay, he became the owner. Although the paper was producing a good income, he in 1881, against the advice of his friends and with personal misgivings, reduced the price from 3d. to 1d. In the event he was amply justified. At the end of seven years the revenue had been multiplied tenfold.
Meanwhile Borthwick was playing a prominent part in public life. With the family of Napoleon III, Borthwick continued intimate relations after the fall of the Empire, and he was a very active promoter in 1879 of the scheme to erect a statue in Westminster Abbey as a memorial to the Prince Imperial. Owing to opposition in Parliament the statue was eventually placed in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. At the general election of 1880 he stood unsuccessfully as a con- servative for his father's former constituency at Evesham. He was knighted on the resignation of Lord Beaconsfield's government in April 1880.
On 19 April 1883, on the occasion of unveiling Lord Beaconsfield's statue at Westminster on the second anniversary of his death, an article in the 'Morning Post' inaugurated the devotion of that day to an annual national celebration of the states- man's memory. Borthwick also claimed that the Primrose League, the details of which Sir Henry Drummond Wolff [q. v. Suppl. II.] devised, owed its first suggestion to the 'Morning Post.' Borthwick never ceased to take a prominent part in the conduct of the league. When the constituencies were rearranged after the Redistribution Act (1885), Borthwick, who had paid special attention to conservative organisation in Chelsea, became conservative candidate for South Kensington, and was returned by a majority of over 2000 in November. His majority was increased next year, and he was unopposed in 1892. In the House of Commons he played no conspicuous part. His most successful achievement was in 1888, when he carried a measure amending the law of libel in the interest of newspaper editors. The political question to which he attached most importance was that of tariff reform^ which was known while he was in the House of Commons as 'fair trade.' The 'Morning Post' had always opposed free trade from the days when it supported Lord George Bentinck in 1846, and Borthwick never wavered in his convictions. He attached himself closely to Lord Randolph Churchill, whose fortunes he never forsook, and whose fall he always deplored. But he had entered Parliament at a time of life (fifty-five) when it was hardly possible to succeed. In 1887 he was created a baronet on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and in 1895 he retired from the House of Commons on being raised to the peerage as Baron Glenesk. At the same time he made over the control of the 'Morning Post' to his only son, Oliver.
Glenesk's social position grew with the prosperity of his paper. In 1870 he had married Alice, younger daughter of Thomas Henry Lister [q. v.] of Armitage Park, Staffordshire. Her mother, Lady Maria Theresa, was daughter of George Villiers and sister of George William Villiers, fourth earl of Clarendon [q. v.] ; she married after Lister's death Sir George Cornewall Lewis [q. v.] [see Lewis, Lady Maria Theresa]. Her two daughters were brought up among prominent and interest- ing people, and the elder, Maria Theresa, was first wife of Sir William Harcourt [q. v. Suppl. II], who was thus Borthwick's brother-in-law and became a close friend. Borthwick's wife proved, in spite of bad health, a celebrated hostess. Their first house was in Eaton Place (1871-84). In 1884 they moved to 139 Piccadilly (rebuilt on the site of what was once Lord Byron's house). Two years later they bought a house on Hampstead Heath ; and they long rented Invercauld and Glen Muick in Scotland, where in the autumn they came into close relations with Queen Victoria at Balmoral and exchanged visits with her and other members of the royal family. Finally they bought the Chateau St. Michel at Cannes. In 1898 Lady Glenesk died at Cannes, and Lord Glenesk's activity was afterwards much diminished. A further calamity befell him in the death on 23 March 1905 of his son Oliver (1873-1905), who had controlled the 'Morning Post' since 1895, had temporarily edited it Jan.-June 1895, and had exhibited remarkable ability as a journalist and great powers of initiative and organisation. On his son's death Lord Glenesk, then in his seventy-fifth year, went back to work in the office for his few remaining years. He died in his house in Piccadilly on 24 Nov. 1908, and was buried near his wife at Hampstead. His only other child, Lilias Margaret Frances, married in 1893 Seymour Henry Bathurst, seventh Earl Bathurst, and to her was bequeathed, with his other property, the possession of the 'Morning Post.' A portrait in oils of Borthwick before his ele- vation to the peerage was painted by Carlo Pellegrini [q. v.], 'Ape' of 'Vanity Fair.'
Glenesk was always keenly interested in theatrical matters, and had a wide acquaintance amongst actors and actresses (cf. The Bancrofts, 1909, pp. 312 sq.). He was a prominent member of the Garrick Club. He was closely associated, too, with many public and charitable institutions. In 1885 he succeeded Lord Houghton as president of the Newspaper Press Fund, to which he was a generous benefactor. He was also a liberal supporter of the Newspaper Benevolent Association, the Press Club, the Institute of Journalists, and the Gallery Lodge of Freemasons, He raised the Chelsea Hospital for Women out of difficulty and debt, and became president of the institution in 1905, after serving on the board for twenty-two years, during half of which he was chairman. His son Oliver founded in 1897, with the help of readers of the 'Morning Post,' the 'Morning Post' Embankment Home in Milbank Street for the relief of destitute men willing to work but out of employment. In 1903 the institution was moved to new premises in New Kent Road. Glenesk gave much aid to the charity, which after its founder's death was continued as a memorial of him and was named the Oliver Borthwick Memorial 'Morning Post' Embankment Home.[Lord Glenesk and the Morning Post, by the present writer, 1910.]