William James Wintle

William James Wintle (1861–1934) was an English journalist and writer.^[1]

Life

Wintle's family was from Gloucestershire. He was educated at the Sir Walter St John's Grammar School For Boys, in Battersea. He then was headmaster of a school, for a period.^[1]

By 1896 Wintle was writing for the Windsor Magazine.^[2] He then joined the Harmsworth staff, working for Lord Northcliffe. There he worked on magazines, and the Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, a part-published work. Later he was director of a publishing house.^[1][3]

As naturalist, Wintle was known as a shell collector; his collection went to that of Arthur Blok.^[4] He became a fellow of the Zoological Society in 1899. He joined the Malacological Society of London also, in 1916, and was its Secretary in 1919;^[1] he was elected to the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1917.^[5]

Papal conclave ballot, illustration from the article "How the Pope is Elected" by W. J. Wintle, in the London Magazine for June, 1903

Interested in Christian religion, Wintle supported the Anglican church in Chiswick. He spent time on Caldey Island with the Benedictines there.^[1] A British Museum list of those presenting zoology specimens in 1920 includes a Brother W. J. Wintle.^[6] He later became a Roman Catholic convert.^[1]

Works

One of Wintle's pieces of journalism, Life in Our New Century from 1901, was included in the anthology Before Armageddon. It originally appeared in the Harmsworth Magazine.^[7] He wrote books:

• Armenia and its Sorrows (1896),^[8] prompted by the Hamidian massacres. A letter of support from W. E. Gladstone to Wintle was used to publicise the book.^[9]
• Paradise Row and Some of its Inhabitants (1897)
• Recreations with a Pocket Lens (1911)^[10]
• Nights with an Old Lag (1911)^[11]
• Pilgrim Songs on the King's Highway (1911) ^[12]
• The Songs of Old England (1912)^[13]
• Ghost Gleams. Tales of the Uncanny (1921).^[14] These are regarded as ghost stories for children, and A Light in the Dormitory has been included in an anthology.^[15]

Wintle wrote for the Sunday School Union, using the pseudonym "John Upton" for a weekly article for the Sunday School Chronicle. With them he published:^[1]

• The Story of Florence Nightingale (1896)
• The Story of Albert the Good (Prince Consort) (1897)^[16]
• Dr. J. L. Phillips ... A Biographical Sketch (1898)^[17] with Mary Phillips; biography of James Liddell Phillips (1840–1895)^[18]
• The Story of Victoria, R.I.: Wife, Mother, Queen (1901)^[19]
• Florence Nightingale and Frances E. Willard: the Story of Their Lives, with Florence Witts, undated^[20]

According to his obituary, Wintle also wrote a Life of Charles Spurgeon.^[1]

Notes

1. Obituary, Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. XXI, 1934–5. p. 149.
2. "The FictionMags Index, Stories, Listed by Author, Wintle to Wire". Retrieved 20 August 2015.
3. Richard Bourne (24 July 2015). Lords of Fleet Street: The Harmsworth Dynasty. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-317-40388-3.
4. Haasiana no. 6, April 2012 (PDF) at pp. 52 and 54
5. "The Journal of Conchology". Internet Archive. 15 August 1917. p. 217. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
6. "Return British Museum, for 1920". Internet Archive. 1920. p. 125. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
7. P. D. Smith (25 September 2008). Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. Penguin Books Limited. p. 713. ISBN 978-0-14-191032-1.
8. Armenia and its Sorrows, 2nd edition 1896 (PDF)
9. The Bookseller. J. Whitaker and Sons, Limited. 1896. p. 1000.
10. William James Wintle (1911). Recreations with a Pocket Lens. London.
11. W. J. Wintle (1911). Nights with an Old Lag. John Ouseley.
12. Pilgrim Songs on the King's Highway. 1911.
13. The Songs of Old England /selected by W. James Wintle. Ousely. 1912.
14. William James Wintle (1921). Ghost Gleams. Tales of the Uncanny. London.
15. Philippa Pearce (1995). Dread and Delight: A Century of Children's Ghost Stories. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-212605-4.
16. William James Wintle (1897). The Story of Albert the Good (Prince Consort). Sunday School Union.
17. Dr. J.L. Phillips ... A Biographical Sketch ... Completed and Edited by W.J. Wintle. Sunday School Union. 1898.
18. "General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine 1794–1950". 1950. p. 135. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
19. William James Wintle (1901). The Story of Victoria, R.I.: Wife, Mother, Queen. Sunday School Union.
20. Lavinia Byrne (1 January 1995). Woman At The Altar: The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church. A&C Black. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-264-67335-6.

External links

• Works by or about William James Wintle at Internet Archive