Thomas Gibson Bowles
Thomas Gibson Bowles | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for King's Lynn | |
In office 1910–1910 | |
Preceded by | Carlyon Bellairs |
Succeeded by | Holcombe Ingleby |
In office 1892–1906 | |
Preceded by | Weston Jarvis |
Succeeded by | Carlyon Bellairs |
Personal details | |
Born | London, England | 15 January 1841
Died | 12 January 1922 Algeciras, Spain | (aged 79)
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse |
Jessica Gordon
(m. 1875; died 1887) |
Children | 4, including George |
Parent(s) | Thomas Milner Gibson Susannah Bowles |
Education | King's College London |
Thomas Gibson Bowles (15 January 1841 – 12 January 1922) was a British politician and publisher. He founded the magazines
Early life
Thomas Gibson Bowles was born in 1841 to Susannah Bowles, being baptised on 10 March 1841 at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London.[3] He was the illegitimate son of the politician Thomas Milner Gibson. He attended school in France and then studied for a year at King's College London. His father gave him a yearly stipend of £90 and helped him find a job at Somerset House.[4]
Career
He began his journalism and publishing career by writing a column for the
He borrowed £200 to found
The targets of Jehu Junior's satire usually considered themselves honoured to have been chosen, and although the scrutiny was acute, it was humorous rather than malicious. Bowles managed to achieve this extraordinarily difficult balancing act throughout his association with the magazine.[6]
Political career
At the
Litigation
In 1912, Bowles brought (and personally argued) a claim in the High Court against the Bank of England, in which he succeed in establishing that the long-standing practice of informally collecting income tax before the Act of Parliament imposing it for the year had been passed was unlawful.[8] This led to the passing of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1913, which for the first time authorised taxes to be collected on the basis of Budget resolutions passed by the House of Commons (a procedure that remains in place to this day).
Personal life
In 1875, he married Jessica Evans Gordon (1852–1887), daughter of Maj.-Gen. Charles Spalding Evans Gordon (1813–1901), a descendant of the Lochinvar branch of Clan Gordon, by his wife Catherine Rose, daughter of Rev. Alexander Rose and Janet Mackintosh, of Inverness. Before her death in 1887, they were the parents of:[9]
- George Frederic Stewart Bowles (1877–1955), a barrister and MP who married Madeline Mary Tobin.[10]
- Geoffrey Bowles (1879–1968), a Commander of the Royal Navy.[11]
- Sydney Bowles (1880–1963), married the Mitford sisters.[12]
- Dorothy Bowles (1885–1971), who married Col. Percy Bailey.[13]
He died on 12 January 1922 while on a holiday at Algeciras, Spain, and is buried in Gibraltar.[4]
Mitford Descendants
Through his elder daughter Sydney, he was a grandfather of
Relationship with Rita Shell
According to his granddaughter Julia Budworth, Bowles also fathered the last three of the four children of assistant Rita Shell (his children's governess, after the death of his wife Jessica Gordon), who changed her surname to Stewart. She later became editor of The Lady. They were Humphrey (b. 1891), Oliver (b. 1895) and Peter (b. 1900). Peter Stewart later assisted at Marlborough House when it was used by Queen Mary.[14]
References
- ^ Bowles, Thomas Gibson (1871). The Defence of Paris: Narrated as it was Seen. S. Low, son, and Marston.
- ^ Naylor, Lonard Edwin (1965). The Irrepressible Victorian: The Story of Thomas Gibson Bowles, Journalist, Parliamentarian and Founder Editor of the Original Vanity Fair. Macdonald.
- ^ Baptism: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JW8H-RYY
- ^ a b c Naylor, Leonard Edwin (1965). The Irrepressible Victorian: The Story of Thomas Gibson Bowles, Journalist. Macdonald. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-14-193917-9. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ Bowles, Thomas Gibson (1889). The Log of the 'Nereid.'. Simpkin, Marshall. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ NAYLOR, Leonard Edwin (1965). The Irrepressible Victorian. The Story of Thomas Gibson Bowles, Etc. [With Plates, Including Portraits.]. London.
- ^ Reported at [1913] 1 Ch. 57.
- ^ ISBN 0-09-155560-4
- ^ "Bowles, George Frederick Stewart (BWLS897GF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ISBN 978-1-136-18538-0. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ Taylor, D. J. (14 August 2003). "The myth of the Mitfords". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ "Society: Clever Daughter and Clever Father". Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine. Hutchinson and Company: 459. 1908. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-953-99630-8.