William Thomas Pike

William Thomas Pike (26 January 1838 – 22 April 1924) was an English publisher, printer, editor and journalist. He is known for his publication of Pike's New Century Series of the Edwardian era. These are large volumes containing topographies of many of the counties of England and Ireland, and photographic portraits and biographies of many county inhabitants, from accountants and businessmen to bishops and aristocrats, but only rarely including women.

Pike had a modest background, beginning as an errand boy and tailor. His career as publisher, printer and editor was interrupted by imprisonment for embezzlement, but as a newspaperman he had friends. Following his release from jail he quickly revived his career, and continued to publish for many more years.

Background By the time Pike was born, his family of tradesmen was based in the south of England. His paternal grandfather was James Pike of Northamptonshire. His father was William Pike, a journeyman baker, Pike's stepmother was Sarah née Dowley, born in Hastings or London, the seventh child of James Dowley of Surrey and Kent, a corn factor who had the Freedom of the City of London. She married Pike's father in 1846.

The eldest of eight siblings and half-siblings, William Thomas Pike was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, on 26 January 1838. They had no children. By 1881, Pike and his wife were living at 53 George Street, Hastings, with Pike's parents, and Pike was describing himself as a publisher and commercial traveller. The 1891 census finds Pike and his wife living at 100 Upper North Street, Brighton, with his mother-in-law and a servant. He describes himself as a publisher of books. By 1901, he and his wife had moved to 19 Grand Parade, Brighton. He was working in the same trade, on his own account. The 1911 census finds them at the same address.

Emma Pike died on 23 January 1912. Pike died on 22 April 1924 at 47 Westbourne Street, Hove, Sussex. He left £138 13s 3d; . His will was proved in London on 3 July 1924, his sister Fanny being named executrix.

W. T. Pike & Co. For some time until March 1877, Pike and his colleague John Ivimy were joint proprietors of Brighton Fashionable Visitors' List, a publication known as The List run by Pike from 1866, and the newspaper Hastings and Eastbourne Chronicle and Record of Local Events. Pike was publisher and printer, and his brother James was editor. "Some difficulties arose", The business was purchased for £735 on 12 April 1877 by George William Watts the junior partner and manager of a piano-manufacturing firm, J.B. Cramer & Co., in Brighton. Watts, a regular advertiser in Pike's newspaper, knew about the business being at risk of foundering, and took advantage of that.

On 18 December 1877, Pike "in a passion" gave a verbal notice to quit, Pike was bailed for £200 on committal for "embezzling and stealing the sum of £4 on 6th October, 1877, £13 18s on the 26th October, 1877, and £3 5s on 11th January, 1878, the moneys of his employer, George William Watts, at Brighton". convicted of embezzlement "with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the prisoner's previous good character", and committed to 6 months' imprisonment at Lewes, with hard labour. When asked whether he had anything to say, Pike spoke in a "rambling" manner, claiming innocence and asserting that, "the whole of the book was not in his handwriting", and that he was "justified" in taking the money. "He concluded by forgiving the jury, and saying that he should not like to stand in Mr Watts' shoes".

By January 1879, Watts was losing credibility, having begun various suits for libel and lost, leaving local newspapers free to comment negatively against him, his treatment of Pike, and his treatment of his colleagues in the music and entertainment world.

Re-establishment of W.T. Pike & Co. Following Pike's release from prison, events made clear that it was not "all over" for him. A new publishing company was founded in Brighton, Sussex, as Robinson, Son & Pike. The firm was a "pioneer in the production of guide books and brochures for tourists, illustrated by photographs".

By August 1881, Pike had published his Directory for Hastings and St Leonards, 1881–1882, to good reviews, and it was not his first issue of that work. The Hastings and St Leonards Observer said it was, "in every way worth the money ... It cannot fail to be of the greatest use to tradesmen ... We have on previous occasions spoken very highly of this work, but the present issue is far more perfect than any of its predecessors".

The company was renamed as W.T. Pike & Co., and it expanded, with Pike as the proprietor. In 1898 Pike "hit upon a format for a national series", titled, Pike's New Century Series. The series was produced until 1912, and one source says that the company closed in the same year, and that the "premises were taken over by Garnett, Mepham and Fisher".

Pike's New Century Series, 1898–1912

Pike's New Century Series, 1898–1912 is a series of quarto volumes, published at 19 Grand Parade, Brighton, and paid for by subscription. The first two volumes concerned the city of Bristol, which set the basic format of combining topography and biographies of noted contemporary figures associated with particular cities or county of England or Ireland. Named authors, and occasionally Pike himself, were responsible for the topography sections, Pike's team edited and expanded the biographies supplied by the subjects who were also the subscribers, and Pike edited the whole.

The 1912 East Anglia volume was reviewed by the newspaper, Truth, in 1913:

Among those literary productions which appeal to parochial patriotism and the simple vanity of the undistinguished, is one entitled East Anglia in the Twentieth Century ... One feature was to be a full account of all the East Anglian churches, and another was to be the usual biographical list of celebrities. The price was £5 5s . A subscriber interested in churches complains that so little space is devoted to them, while, on the other hand, the list of nobility and gentry is so complete that even the name of the manager of a Cambridge brewery, who is now a guest of H.M. prisons, is included in it. That is the worst of being a five-guinea celebrity. You never know who is going to share the honour with you.