Robert Hogarth Patterson

Robert Hogarth Patterson (1821–1886) was a Scottish journalist and author.

Early life Born in Edinburgh in December 1821, Patterson was educated as a civil engineer at Edinburgh high school. When quite young he started in the printing-office of his cousin, John Ballantyne, as a press corrector. In 1852 he left the printing business to become editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser.

London newspaper editor In 1858 Patterson moved to London as editor, and later proprietor, of The Press, owned by Benjamin Disraeli, after the death in 1857 of David Trevena Coulton. George Henry Townsend took it over from him about 1865. About that year Patterson may have become involved with The Globe, which he ran at some point with Francis Mahony and E. B. Moran (or E. R. Morgan). A London evening paper, it took a Conservative line. The details, however are not clear. The editors of this period, during the 1860s, of The Globe included: Charles Wescomb; Henry Barnett, minister of South Place Chapel; Patterson; and Marbrook Tucker.

Later life Patterson resigned from The Globe in 1869, to join a board appointed by parliament to investigate and report on the purification of coal-gas in London. The outcome was a process for the elimination of sulphur and ammonia impurities from gas.

Patterson died at Hammersmith on 13 December 1886. He had married, in 1848, Georgina, daughter of Captain Thomson of Perth. It attracted attention, because of the fulfilment, soon after publication, of some of its predictions. The Science of Finance, Edinburgh, 1868. Railway Finance, Edinburgh, 1868. The State, the Poor, and the Country, including Suggestions on the Irish Question, Edinburgh, 1870. Gas and Lighting (British Manufacturing Industries series), London, 1876. The New Golden Age and the Influence of the Precious Metals upon the World, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1882.

Patterson was also the author of pamphlets: