Sunday Dispatch

The Sunday Dispatch was a British newspaper, published between 27 September 1801 and 18 June 1961, when it was merged with the Sunday Express. Until 1928, it was called the Weekly Dispatch.

History

First published as the Weekly Dispatch in 1801, it was bought by Alfred Harmsworth and Lord Rothermere in 1903 from the Newnes family. The pair turned the newspaper around from bankruptcy, and made it the biggest selling Sunday newspaper, changing its name to the Sunday Dispatch in 1928.

As editor Charles Eade had served as Press Liaison officer for Lord Mountbatten during World War II, distribution was up from 800,000 to over 2 million copies per edition in 1947.

In light of comment from Randolph Churchill that Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere was "pornographer royal" for his ownership of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Dispatch, Rothermere fired both Eade and the editor of the Daily Sketch in 1959. Under its last editor Walter Hayes, it still had pre-printed posters with the headline "CHURCHILL IS DEAD," in preparation of the death of his father Winston Churchill

In an era when other papers such as the News Chronicle, the Empire News and the Sunday Graphic were rapidly falling to the influence of television, the Sunday Dispatch ceased publication in 1961.

The possible late 1960s Dispatch was the fictional setting of Philip Norman's 1996 novel Everyone's Gone to the Moon about reporting in the British pop-invasion of America in the 1960s.

Famous stories and headlines

• September 1927 - In light of the trial verdict of the murder of PC Gutteridge of the Metropolitan Police, the headline read "Hanged by a microscope." An early case of ballistics science, it reflected the fact that microscopic examination of the Smith and Wesson gun cartridge cases had provided the crucial evidence to convict car thieves Frederick Browne and Pat Kennedy of the murder.

• 1933 - published Harry Price's book "Leaves From a Psychist's Case-Book" in a series of 10 articles.

• 1940 - then editor Charles Eade asked Winston Churchill weeks before he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for permission to publish an article Churchill wrote in 1937 entitled "How The Jews Can Combat Persecution" - Churchill, recognising the changed political situation, refused.

• 1945 - the first Miss Great Britain contest was held by Morecambe and Heysham Council in association with the Dispatch, which as a preliminary to the personal appearance heats at Morecambe, photographic heats held in the newspaper attracted contestant from all over the country. The first prize was 7 guineas and a basket of fruit.

• 2 December 1945 - broke news that British spy John Amery was dying of Tuberculosis. A post mortem revealed after his conviction and execution for high treason that he had not been suffering from the disease.

• 13 February 1949 - in light of the importation of American "dark humour" comics, the headline read: "Horror has crept into the British nursery. Morals of little girls in plaits and boys with marbles bulging in their pockets are being corrupted by a torrent of indecent coloured magazines that are flooding bookstalls and newsagents." The counter article was co-written by the Reverend Marcus Morris, later founder of "The Eagle" comic

• 1950 - in late summer, the Dispatch was partly responsible for launching the Flying Saucer debate in the UK, when in a circulation battle with the Sunday Express. Both papers competed to serialise the seminal books by Major Donald Keyhoe Flying Saucers are Real, Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers and Gerald Heard's Riddle of the Flying Saucers. Eade had been encouraged to promote ‘flying saucer’ stories by his friend Lord Mountbatten whom he had served as Press officer during the Second World War. The Dispatch later reported on the 1951 Mount Kilimanjaro incident and the West Freugh Incident in April 1957

• June 1953 - serialisation of "The Rommel papers" edited by military historian Basil Liddell Hart.

• 25 April 1954 - the headline read "Doctor's Journal Launches a Startling Campaign - Smoking sensation - MP Urges Ban On Manufacture Of Cigarettes As Move Against Cancer Peril" on the risks of smoking and lung cancer. The article was later cited in 2000 by Gallaher Tobacco to the UK Parliamentary Health select committee showing that such risks had been known for some while

• 1954 - broke the story that racing driver Mike Hawthorn was not called up for National Service because he cited that he was not in the country, while actually he was.

• 1959 - exposed a story about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, where he sold shares at $65 each in a company that didn't exist. Hubbard apologised, and returned all monies, allegedly commenting: "It's lucky the police did not become involved, otherwise something most unpleasant might have happened."

Former journalists and editors

• Ursula Bloom - reporter. A later fictional novelist who wrote under numerous pseudonyms, she published over 500 books in her lifetime, an achievement that won her recognition in the Guinness Book of Records.
• William Brittain - editor from 1931 to 1934. He then bought the short lived London Daily Recorder
• Collin Brooks - editor, 1930s.
• Randolph Churchill - political columnist. Resigned in 1936 following papers refusal to publish one of his articles.
• Dorothy Crisp A regular contributor of provocative articles. One edition in 1943 was banned in Eire (Southern Ireland) because it contained her criticisms of the de Valera’s government.
• Charles Eade - editor, Press Liaison officer for Lord Mountbatten during the Second World War
• Alastair Forbes - wrote weekly column called "Behind the World Political Scene" from 1945, but he was fired in 1956.
• Walter Hayes - editor, 1957-1961. Later Ford PR Vice President.
• Gerald McKnight - editor. Later founder of News Shopper
• Reverend Marcus Morris - first feature he ever wrote. Later founder of The Eagle comic
• Max Miller - the comedian wrote a weekly column.
• Bill Tidy - cartoonist
• Margaret Williams - reporter. Went to Berlin in 1946 with the first batch of British Army wives to rejoin their husbands serving in Germany.
• Ian Wooldridge - journalist

Editors

1801: Robert Bell

1815: George Kent

1816: Robert Bell

1818: Williams

1838: Joseph Wrightson

1856: Sydney French

1862: T. J. Serle

1875: Ashton Wentworth Dilke

1876: Fox Bourne

1883: W. A. Hunter

1892: Frank Smith

1895: Charles John Tibbits

1903: Evelyn Wrench

1904:

1911: Monatagu Cotton

1915: Hannen Swaffer

1919: Bernard Falk

1933: Harry Lane

1934: William Brittain

1936: Collin Brooks

1938: Charles Eade

1959: Bert Gunn

Source:

References

Bibliography

• N.J.Crowson - Fleet Street, Press Barons and Politics Cambridge University Press/Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0-521-66239-7