George Robert Sims
George Robert Sims (2 September 1847 – 4 September 1922) was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and bon vivant.
Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for Fun magazine and The Referee, but he was soon concentrating on social reform, particularly the plight of the poor in London's slums. A prolific journalist and writer he also produced a number of novels.
Sims was also a very successful dramatist, writing numerous plays, often in collaboration, several of which had long runs and international success. He also bred bulldogs, was an avid sportsman and lived richly among a large circle of literary and artistic friends. Sims earned a fortune from his productive endeavours but had gambled most of it away by the time of his death.
Biography
Sims was born in
Sims was married three times and was twice a widower. In 1876 he married Sarah Elizabeth Collis (b. 1850), in 1888 he married Annie Maria Harriss (b. 1859) and in 1901 he married Elizabeth Florence Wykes (b. 1873), who survived him. None of these marriages produced any children.[2] The Times wrote in Sims's obituary that
- "so attractive and original was the personality revealed in his abundant output—for he was a wonderfully hard worker—that no other journalist has ever occupied quite the same place in the affections not only of the great public but also of people of more discriminating taste.... Sims was indeed a born journalist, with the essential flair added to shrewd common sense, imagination, wide sympathies, a vivid interest in every side of life, and the most ardent patriotism.... He was [also] a highly successful playwright... a zealous social reformer, an expert criminologist, a connoisseur in good eating and drinking, in racing, in dogs, in boxing, and in all sorts of curious and out-of-the-way people and things."[1]
Journalism, satire and social writings
He returned to England and briefly worked in his father's business, but his interests lay in writing, and he began to write stories and poetry. He began to publish pieces in
In 1877, he began contributing to a new Sunday sports and entertainments paper, edited by Sampson, The Referee, writing a weekly column of miscellany, "Mustard and Cress", under the pseudonym Dagonet, until his death.[3] This was so successful that compilations of his verses from the paper, published as The Dagonet Ballads (1879) and Ballads of Babylon (1880), sold in hundreds of thousands of copies and were constantly in print during the next thirty years. He also wrote amusing and popular travelogues, also as Dagonet.[2] He became editor of One and All in 1879 and for various papers wrote about horse racing, showing dogs, boxing, and leisure. Although Sims published his "Mustard and Cress" column every week for 45 years without fail, according to The Times,
- "week after week... the page read freshly and seemed always to have something new in it. It was sprinkled with neat little epigrams in verse, patriotic songs or parodies, with jokes, puns, conundrums, catch-words. He talked of politics... philanthropy, amusement, reminiscence, food and drink, and such travel as so confirmed a Cockney could enjoy. ...he would champion the cause of the unfortunate middle classes.... He took his readers into his confidence, and told them all about... his friends... his pets.... And he contrived to do this without ever becoming egotistical or a bore."[1]
Sims is best remembered for his dramatic
Sims was appointed as part of an 1882 study of social conditions in Southwark in 1882 and as a witness before the 1884 royal commission on working-class housing. Sims also raised public awareness of other issues, including white slave traffic in a series articles published in the Daily Telegraph, later in book form as London by Night (1906) and Watches of the Night (1907); and the maltreatment of children, writing The Black Stain (1907).[2] Together with Elizabeth Burgwin, he founded the Referee Children's Free Breakfast and Dinner Fund (1880). Burgwin had already been supplying free breakfats and dinners at her school, but she persuaded him to write an annual appeal in The Referee. By 1900 it was the largest charity supplying free school meals in London.[6] He also worked to promote the boys' clubs movement and campaigned to open museums and galleries and permit concerts on Sundays as part of the National Sunday League.[2]
He also published a number of novels, including:[3]
- Rogues and Vagabonds
- Memoirs of Mary Jane
- Mary Jane Married
- Memoirs of a Landlady
- The Ten Commandments
- Li Ting of London
His autobiography, My Life: Sixty Years' Recollections of Bohemian London (1917) became very popular. It consisted of reminiscences originally contributed to The Evening News. Its profiles of Sims London contemporaries are written kindly but with zest.[1] His other books include:
- The Coachman's Club, Or, Tales Told Out of School (1897, F. V. White and Co.)
- Living London (3 vols. 1901–1903, Cassell, chronicling the variety in London life)
- Among My Autographs (1904, Chatto & Windus)
Sims was intrigued by the psychology of crime, and he penned some ingenious detective stories. His story collection, Dorcas Dene, Detective (1897) featured an early example of a female detective in crime fiction.
Sims's sympathy and wit were not enough to spare him some criticism. To make fun of Sims the National Observer, in 1892, nominated him to succeed
Plays
Sims wrote over thirty plays, but most of them were adapted from European pieces. His first hit play, Crutch and Toothpick, based on a French farce by
In the early 1880s, Sims became the first playwright to have four plays running simultaneously in West End theatres. He also had a dozen touring companies playing his works by that time. He collaborated on many of his plays, and his co-authors included Barrett, Sydney Grundy and Clement Scott.[2]
His most successful collaboration was with
Sims's other famous melodramas included:
- The Golden Ladder
- Master and the Man
- The Star of India
- The Gypsy Earl
- Scarlet Sin
- The Silver Falls (1888)
- The English Rose (1890)
- The Trumpet Call (1891)
- The White Rose (1892), starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell
- The Lights of Home (1892), starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell
- The Black Domino (1893)
His other notable comedies included:
- *Memoirs of a Mother-in-Law (1881)
- The Member for Slocum (1881)
- The Gay City (1881)
Later years
Sims enjoyed his position as a successful author and playwright and belonged to the Devonshire Club, the Eccentric Club and others. He reported earnings of nearly £150,000 in 1898, but he gambled most of his wealth away, or gave it to charities, by the time of his death. He was passionate about sports, especially horse racing and boxing, and he played badminton and bred bulldogs. Sims invented a tonic, Tatcho, that was marketed to cure baldness, but his friends found this a source of mirth when it did not stop his own hairline from receding.[2]
Sims used the Daily Mail to wage a campaign to secure the pardon and release of a Norwegian,
He died at his home in Regent's Park, London, just after his 75th birthday in 1922, from liver cancer.[16] After a funeral service at St Marylebone Parish Church, his body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, and his ashes were scattered in the crematorium's grounds.[17]
Bibliography
- George Robert Sims (1904). Among My Autographs. Chatto & Windus.
- George Robert Sims (1881). The Theatre of Life. Fuller.
- George Robert Sims (1889). Horrible London
- George Robert Sims (1897). The Coachman's Club, Or, Tales Told Out of School. F.V. White.
- Sims, G. R. (1917). My life: sixty years' recollections of bohemian London
- Sims, G. R. (1900). Without the limelight: theatrical life as it is
References
- ^ a b c d e f "G. R. Sims. Journalist, dramatist, and Bohemian", The Times, 6 September 1922, p. 12, col. D.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Waller, Philip (2004). "Sims, George Robert (1847–1922)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 9 October 2008.
- ^ a b Chambers, Robert (1904). "George Robert Sims", Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature, pp. 696–97, W. & R. Chambers, Limited.
- ^ a b George Robert Sims biography, Dictionary of Literary Biography.
- ^ Addison, Henry Robert et al. (1907) "Sims, George Robert", Who's Who, A. & C. Black, vol. 59, p. 1611.
- .
- ^ Dorcas Dene, in The New Thrilling Detective website.
- ^ Dorcas Dene, Detective (1897).
- ^ "The Haverstock Hill Murders", BBC Radio 4, Saturday Drama, first broadcast June 2006.
- ^ Gillian, Don (2010). "The Fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter". Stage Beauty.
- ^ "The Theatre Royal Fire – 1887". Exeter Memories. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ISBN 1904031137.
- ISBN 0544363876.
- ^ Adams, William Davenport (1904). A Dictionary of the Drama: a Guide to the Plays, Playwrights, Vol. 1, pp. 374–75, Chatto & Windus.
- ISBN 0394521897.
- ^ "Death of Mr. G. R. Sims", The Times, 6 September 1922, p. 10.
- ^ Daily Mirror, 8 September 1922, p. 11.
Further reading
- Connell, J. W. E. Henley (1949)
- Darlow, T. H. William Robertson Nicoll: life and letters (1925)
- Hurt, J. S. Elementary schooling and the working classes, 1860–1918 (1979)
- Irving, L. Henry Irving: the actor and his world (1951)
- Keating, P. J. The working classes in Victorian fiction (1971)
- Kemp, S., C. Mitchell and D. Trotter. Edwardian fiction: an Oxford companion (1997)
- Nash, E. I liked the life I lived (1941)
- Powell, K. Oscar Wilde and the theatre of the 1890s (1990)
- Radzinowicz, L. and R. Hood. The emergence of penal policy in Victorian and Edwardian England (1990)
- Wohl, A. S. The eternal slum: housing and social policy in Victorian London (1977)
- The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchesterholds Sims's papers (mostly scripts and scrapbooks).
External links
- Works by George Robert Sims at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about George Robert Sims at Internet Archive
- Works by George Robert Sims at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Human Wales by George R. Sims (1907)
- George R.Sims papers at John Rylands Library, Manchester.