W. G. Fish

Walter George Fish CBE (3 June 1874 – 21 December 1947), known as W. G. Fish, was a British newspaper editor.

Born in Accrington, Fish studied at Westminster City School before entering journalism. He joined the Daily Mail in 1904, and was promoted to news editor in 1906, quickly gaining attention by providing the first reports of Dr Crippen's arrest in Canada.

During World War I, he worked for the Board of Trade, organising publicity for coal mining. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours.^[1]

He was promoted to become editor of the Mail in 1919. In 1922, he planned to sue the newspaper's owner, Lord Northcliffe, for libel, but was dissuaded and ultimately served until 1930. He spend his retirement as a director of the Mail, and during World War II he advised the Ministry of Information and the Press and Censorship Bureau.^[2]

In the late 1930s, Fish and his second wife Margery bought East Lambrook Manor in Somerset, where they established a now-famous garden.^[2]

References

1. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31114. p. 449. 8 January 1919.
2. "Fish, Margery", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography