John Leng (politician)

Sir John Leng
Sir John Leng, by William Quiller Orchardson, 1901
Member of Parliament for Dundee
In office 1889–1906
Preceded by	Joseph Firth and Edmund Robertson
Succeeded by	Alexander Wilkie and Edmund Robertson
Personal details
Born	10 May 1828 Hull
Died	13 December 1906 (aged 78) Delmonte, California
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Emily Cook; Mary Low
Occupation	publisher; Member of Parliament

Sir John Leng (10 April 1828 – 13 December 1906) was a Liberal Party politician in Scotland.

Life

He was born at Hull on 10 April 1828, was younger brother of Sir William Christopher Leng. Educated at Hull grammar school, he acted there as joint-editor with Charles Cooper (afterwards editor of the 'Scotsman') of a manuscript school magazine.^[1]

Becoming assistant teacher at a private school, he sent letters to the Hull Advertiser which attracted the notice of Edward Francis Collins, then editor, and led to his appointment in 1847, at nineteen, as sub-editor and reporter. This post, which embraced dramatic and musical criticism, he held for four years.^[1]

In July 1851, Leng was selected from among seventy candidates as editor of the then bi-weekly Dundee Advertiser. The paper was founded in 1801, but had fallen into a backward state. Leng soon raised the 'Advertiser' to high rank, both in local and imperial affairs. His wide practical knowledge of newspaper work enabled him to reorganise both the literary staff and machinery. The old premises were quickly found too small ; and in 1859 he built the first portion of new premises in Bank Street, which, before his death, attained gigantic proportions. As early as 1852 Leng was made a partner by the proprietors of the Advertiser, and the imprint thenceforth bore the name of John Leng & Co.^[1]

After the abolition of the "taxes on knowledge" in 1861, the Advertiser was issued daily. In June 1870, Leng was one of the first Scottish newspaper proprietors to establish an office in Fleet Street, London, with direct telegraphic communication with Dundee. When stereotyping was adopted, after printing from rolls of paper instead of sheets was introduced, he caused a stereotype-foundry to be erected as a portion of the plant. In 1851 the single machine in use could only produce 350 copies per hour ; fifty years afterwards Leng had four elaborate machines in operation, each capable of throwing off 20,000 copies per hour. He was the first to attempt illustrations in a daily paper ; and when the primitive pantographic method was superseded by zincography, he founded a zincographic and photographic studio as part of the office equipment. The difficulty of obtaining an adequate paper supply was overcome in 1893, when the Donside paper-mills were acquired by a private limited liability company, of which Leng was chairman.^[1]

Leng proved to be a notable pioneer in other departments of journalistic enterprise. In May 1859 he founded the first half-penny daily newspaper in Scotland, under the title of the Daily Advertiser, but the limited machinery then available compelled him to suspend this venture. In January 1858 he established the People's Journal, a weekly newspaper which soon reached the largest circulation of any similar paper in Scotland. A literary weekly paper, the People's Friend, was founded by him in 1869 ; and he lived to see it reach a circulation which rivalled that of London periodicals of its kind. The Evening Telegraph, a halfpenny daily newspaper, was started in 1877, and had a successful career, being amalgamated in 1900 with the Evening Post, another local paper. In 1860, he suggested the introduction of sixpenny telegrams, printing specimen forms similar to those afterwards adopted.^[1]

Sir John Leng

In September 1889, on the death of Joseph Firth^[2] one of two Member of Parliament for Dundee, Leng was returned without opposition in the liberal interest. He was re-elected by large majorities in 1892, 1896, and 1900. retiring from the House of Commons at the dissolution in 1905.^[1]

An advanced radical and a supporter of home rule all round, he made his maiden speech, on 26 March 1890, in support of the parliamentary elections (Scotland) bill, which proposed that the expenses of returning officers at such elections should be paid out of the rates. Among the topics which he brought before the House of Commons were the excessive hours of railway guards, engine-drivers, and firemen ; appointment of female inspectors of factories and workshops ; boarding-out of pauper children by parochial boards. He was prominent in 1893, in support of the home rule bill of Mr. Gladstone, and of the employers' liability bill. In the same year, he was knighted and was made deputy-lieutenant for the county of the city of Dundee. He was made an honorary burgess of Dundee in 1902 ; and in 1904 hon. LL.D. of St. Andrews.^[1]

Despite his journalistic and parliamentary activity he found time for extensive travel. He visited the United States and Canada in 1876, and frequently toured in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. His first Western journey was recorded in a volume entitled 'America in 1876' (Dundee, 1877) ; and a visit to India in 1896 was detailed in his book Letters from India and Ceylon (1897), a work translated and widely circulated in Germany. Two journeys in the Near East produced Some European Rivers and Cities (1897) and Glimpses of Egypt and Sicily (1902). A second American tour in 1905 was commemorated in Letters from the United States and Canada (1905). In October 1906, he set out on a third tour in America, but fell ill at Delmonte, California, and died there on 12 December 1906. His body was cremated and the ashes brought home and interred at Vicarsford cemetery, near Newport, Fife.^[1]

Family

Leng married twice : first in 1851, to Emily, elder daughter of Alderman Cook of Beverley ; she died at Kinbrae, Newport, Fife, in 1894, leaving two sons and four daughters. Then he married in 1897, Mary, daughter of William Low, of Kirriemuir, who survived him.^[1]

Notes

1. Millar 1912.
2. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Millar, Alexander Hastie (1912). "Leng, John". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

References

• Porter, Dilwyn (2004). "Leng, Sir William Christopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Leng