Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Levy-Lawson, Edward
LEVY-LAWSON, EDWARD, first Baron Burnham (1833–1916), newspaper proprietor, was born in London 28 December 1833, the eldest of the eight children of Joseph Moses Levy [q.v.], manager of a printing establishment in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, by his wife, Esther, daughter of Godfrey Alexander Cohen. Edward Levy assumed the additional surname of Lawson by royal licence in 1875, in consideration of a deed of gift by his father's brother, Lionel Lawson. He was educated at University College School, Gower Street, London, and, on leaving, joined as dramatic critic the staff of the Sunday Times, at that time owned by his father. ‘It was in the back office on the ground floor at the corner of Bridge Street,’ he once told an audience many years later, ‘I sometimes, in the intervals of providing copy, had visions of a future, which, with the help of many kind friends, has been happily realized.’ In 1855 Joseph Levy acquired the Daily Telegraph and Courier, after three months' precarious existence, from its original founder, Colonel Sleigh, in liquidation of a printing debt. The new owner put fresh capital and energy into the business, dropped the second half of the cumbrous title, gathered round him a vigorous staff (including his son, who shortly afterwards became editor), and turned a losing into a paying property.
The moment was exceptionally favourable for new developments in journalism. The possibilities of the electric telegraph, then still a novelty and a wonder, were just beginning to be understood, although it was not till later that the London press made extensive use of the opportunities which it provided for the rapid transmission of news. The abolition of the last of the paper duties in 1861 cleared the way for the development of the penny press, of which the Daily Telegraph was the pioneer in London. Edward Levy undertook his first public work in connexion with these paper duties, for he served with Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright on a committee the report of which finally determined their abolition. He had personal knowledge of almost every department of a newspaper. He could set type; he had ‘handled copy’; he could turn a neat paragraph, and dictate a telling leader. His main interest soon focussed on politics, and he was much in the lobby of the House of Commons, where he shared with John Thadeus Delane [q.v.], of The Times, the special privilege, rarely granted, of standing at the bar of the House of Lords with members of the House of Commons.
The dominant idea of those who conducted the Daily Telegraph was to break away from the ponderous stiffness of the older journalism, to brighten the paper by a more lively presentation of the news, and to appeal to the sentiment of the reader as well as to chronicle facts. The Dickens influence was strong, and the humanized newspaper succeeded so well that by 1871 the circulation of the Daily Telegraph had risen to the then unprecedented figure of 200,000 copies a day. (Sir) Edwin Arnold, George Augustus Henry Sala, Edward Litt Laman Blanchard, Thornton Leigh Hunt, Frederick Greenwood, William Beatty Kingston, (Sir) Campbell Clarke, Joseph Bennett, James Macdonnell, Francis Charles Lawley, and Clement William Scott were amongst the best known of those who helped Lawson to achieve and maintain ‘the largest circulation’, but none did more than (Sir) John Merry Le Sage, managing editor for thirty years.
Long before his father's death in 1888 the principal direction of the paper had been in Lawson's hands; he had indeed been managing proprietor and sole controller since 1885. A good judge of men, he knew also how to get the best work out of them. His instructions never left a doubt of his meaning. A few sentences scribbled in pencil in a large, round hand on the back of a used envelope would often serve to convey his wishes. His decisions were rapid and final; his industry tireless. Although few men loved social pleasures more, or had a greater aptitude for them, he rarely failed for a long stretch of years to read and pass the proofs of all the principal articles which were to appear in the next morning's issue.
Throughout the 'sixties and 'seventies the Daily Telegraph consistently supported Mr. Gladstone. The name of ‘the People's William’, which at one time enjoyed a wide vogue, was coined by Lawson himself. On occasion he sought personally to influence the liberal leader in the direction of social reform. The day before Mr. Gladstone was to make an eagerly awaited speech in Greenwich in 1874 Lawson called and sent in the suggestion through the chief liberal whip that Gladstone should commit the party to a campaign for the better housing of the working classes. Gladstone admitted the importance of the subject, but doubted the suitability of state action. When, in 1878, Gladstone's Eastern policy became strongly anti-Turkish, the Daily Telegraph transferred its support to Lord Beaconsfield largely owing to the influence of Edwin Arnold. The Home Rule controversy widened the paper's breach with the liberals. Lawson always claimed that the paper was strictly independent and not bound or pledged to any leader or party, but from 1886 onwards it supported, without swerving, the unionist and imperialist causes and a ‘strong navy’ policy.
In politics Lawson was a realist of accommodating temper, prepared to fight hard for his political principles while reasonable hope of maintaining them remained, but not prepared to tie himself or his paper to a dead cause. He was always for settling differences rather than for fighting them out to the bitter end. He was the friend of reasonable men in either camp. A warm advocate of social reform, he had strong sympathies with those who were suffering or in distress. Tolerant himself, he opposed intolerance in others.
Lawson took a special interest in the organization of appeals to the public on behalf of great national and charitable efforts. The first of the Daily Telegraph's many shilling funds was raised to relieve the Lancashire cotton famine distress in the winter of 1862–1863. The last great appeal which Lawson personally initiated was the Daily Telegraph soldiers' and sailors' widows and orphans fund during the Boer War, which raised and distributed the sum of £255,275. The 1887 jubilee was celebrated by a fund for the entertainment of 30,000 London school children in Hyde Park. Lawson received the Queen on that occasion, and the function was one of the most successful and pleasing of the jubilee ceremonies. Another effort produced £44,570 for the Prince of Wales's hospital fund for London in commemoration of the Queen's diamond jubilee in 1897.
Among the more notable enterprises sponsored by the Daily Telegraph were the expedition of the archaeologist George Smith [q.v.] to Assyria in 1873, when certain cuneiform records of the Deluge story were discovered; the joint enterprise with the New York Herald in 1874, when (Sir) Henry Morton Stanley [q.v.] was commissioned to complete David Livingstone's work in ‘Darkest Africa’ and explore the sources of the Congo; and the assistance given in 1884 to the expedition of Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston to (Mount) Kilima Njaro in East Africa.
Lawson was created a baronet in 1892, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Burnham in 1903, when he retired from active control of the Daily Telegraph and handed over the reins to his elder son. He received the K.C.V.O. in 1904. By that time he was universally recognized as the doyen of English journalism. In 1913, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, Lord Northcliffe presented him at his estate of Hall Barn, near Beaconsfield, with an address of congratulation from every branch of English journalism, the most striking passage of the address being that which in effect complimented Lord Burnham on having staved off so vigorously the challenge of his younger and most formidable rival. ‘You have never stood still’, ran the address, ‘in former ways, however successful, but by signal strokes of promptitude and courage have shown how journalism may re-adapt itself to the changing circumstances both of its own technical conditions, and of the world which it reflects.’ In journalistic circles the significance of the reference was well understood. Lord Northcliffe on another occasion spoke of Lord Burnham as ‘the best journalist of us all’.
Lord Burnham was one of the most widely known men of his time. He wielded power through his newspaper, but he was liked for himself. He was an original member of the Beefsteak Club, and a trustee of the Garrick Club. He loved good fellowship and genial gossip, and radiated liveliness. He also had great kindness of heart. He was a good talker and a good speaker—the utterance large, the style rotund. When he spoke for the newspaper press fund, or among journalists at press conferences—he was president of the Royal Institute of Journalists in 1892–1893, and of the Empire Press Union from 1909 till his death—he was always at his best. But he rarely appeared on public platforms and he never broke silence in the House of Lords.
A Londoner born and bred, Lord Burnham loved London life, and carried on the family tradition of being a good host and giving pleasant social parties. In 1881 he purchased Hall Barn, in the hundred of Burnham, the old home of Edmund Waller, the poet, and there the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII) visited him every year from 1892 until his death. There, too, during the last twelve years of his life Lord Burnham gave himself up to the enjoyment of country pursuits and fulfilled the duties of deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for Buckinghamshire, of which he had been high sheriff in 1886. He died in London 9 January 1916.
Lord Burnham married in 1862 Harriette Georgiana (died 1897), only daughter of Benjamin Nottingham Webster [q.v.], the actor-manager. They had two sons and one daughter. The elder son, Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson (born 1862), succeeded his father in the barony and was created a viscount in 1919.
There is a whole-length portrait of Lord Burnham, seated, in robes, with the star of the Victorian order, by Sir Hubert von Herkomer (Royal Academy Pictures, 1910).
[Daily Telegraph, 10 January 1916; private information; personal knowledge.]