Lilias Bathurst

Lilias Margaret Frances, Countess Bathurst (, 12 October 187130 December 1965) was a British newspaper publisher who owned The Morning Post. Her father, Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk, owned the paper and passed control to her upon his death in 1908. She led the paper as the only female owner of a major newspaper in the world, reorienting it to focus on political and diplomatic affairs. Lady Bathurst herself was an anti-feminist, supporting movements against women's suffrage.

The paper continued to be successful and respected under her ownership; it was considered an organ of the Conservative Party and contributed to the fall of Arthur Balfour and David Lloyd George from power. Under her ownership, the paper was also known for its far-right stance, which largely reflected her own views, including expressing opinions that were antisemitic, imperialist, and militaristic. Lord Northcliffe, one of Lady Bathurst's competitors and the owner of The Times, wrote that she was "the most powerful woman in England, without exception other than royalty". She sold the paper in 1924 and lived in relative obscurity before dying in 1965 at the age of 94.

Personal life Lilias Margaret Frances Borthwick was born in Eaton Place, London, on 12 October 1871 to Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk, and Alice Beatrice, the daughter of Thomas Henry Lister.

She married Seymour Bathurst, 7th Earl Bathurst on 15 November 1893. They had four children; three sons and a daughter. on Saint Helena during the Second Boer War as he was in command of the garrison on the island. She wanted to purchase Longwood House, where Napoleon had lived in exile, but never did. When her father died, she inherited his house in Piccadilly but sold it after several years and moved to Bruton Street. and was considered refined and aristocratic under her ownership. In 2014 Harry Defries wrote that "The Morning Post represented the extreme right of Conservatism and its hostility towards Jews was extreme". The paper was described in The Journal of British Studies as "the most important right-wing newspaper of the day". Bathurst also felt women were not qualified to become voters, and was broadly anti-feminist. She supported and was a member of the National Service League.

Editorship of Fabian Ware (19051911) Her father, Lord Glenesk, was the owner of The Morning Post. Glenesk replaced his father, Peter Borthwick, as editor of the paper in 1852, and he purchased it in 1876. Under his ownership, the paper gradually shifted to advocate protectionist policies and supported Lord Palmerston. and by some papers that she was the only woman in the world to own a major newspaper. She stayed informed about important matters of the paper and generally supported Gwynne.

In May 1914 Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, the owner of The Times, reduced the price of his newspapers to one penny, beginning a 'newspaper war' with The Morning Post, The Telegraph, and The Standard, which all published at that price. It was thought that The Morning Post had the weakest hold on circulation, and would be targeted by Lord Northcliffe. He wrote that the Post was "a paper which has the unique distinction of voicing the views of a very gifted lady". The war began with advertisements published in the papers. In 1920, she founded the British League of Help for the Devastated Areas of France and Belgium.

In July 1920, The Morning Post published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination, with no comments. H. A. Gwynne had sent the document to Lady Bathurst before publication, and she had suggested collaborating with The Times in publishing them. However, Wilson suggests that Gwynne had deceived Lady Bathurst over the document's authenticity.

In a 1922 article, The Outlook called her "the world's greatest woman newspaper owner". Lord Northcliffe called her "the most powerful woman in England, without exception other than royalty". In 1922, Lord Midleton was offended by a story he read in the newspaper. He accosted Lady Bathurst, and she refused to apologise. Midleton told her that if her husband had been the owner of the paper, he would have "called him out and shot him." The disagreement soon came up in the House of Lords, where the Lord Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, sided against Bathurst. When David Lloyd George fell from power in late 1922, Hayden Church for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate wrote that "with the exception of Andrew Bonar Law himself, and perhaps not even excepting the present Prime Minister, no single individual played a greater part in precipitating the crisis that drove David Lloyd George from office than did Lady Bathurst through her famous journal, the 'Morning Post'". She was also credited with helping decrease the power of Arthur Balfour through creating a 'Balfour Must Go' movement.

Sale of paper Since the end of the war, the paper had not been financially performing as well as Lady Bathurst had hoped. Attempts at increasing its profitsand therefore her own incomewere unsuccessful. After August 1922, the paper's finances were continually overdrawn, and Lady Bathurst herself was in increasingly poor financial condition. Coupled with a dramatic fall in circulation, in December 1922 she decided to sell the paper, assigning her son Allen Bathurst, Lord Apsley, to handle the negotiations. Negotiations with Rupert E. Beckett of The Yorkshire Post began in 1923, but were unsuccessful. On 7 April 1924 the paper was sold to Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland, and a consortium of prominent Conservatives for £500,000 (£ in ).

Later life and death After selling the paper she lived in relative obscurity, helping her son politically. Allen Bathurst died in 1942 and Seymour Bathurst the following year. She died on 30 December 1965 at the age of 94 in Chesterton, Gloucestershire.