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Description: | The memorial comprises a short rock-faced stone pedestal surmounted by a boulder of granite and a metal tethering ring. It stands between the library's low perimeter wall and the building itself. A plaque attached to the wall of the library, above the stone, details its commemoration. Additional Information: Acclaimed the founding father of modern investigative journalism, William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) was born the son of a Congrational Minister in Embleton, Northumberland. Educated at home until the age of 11, William continued his studies at Silcoates, near Wakefield and at 14 left school to start work as an office boy in a Newcastle counting house. In 1871, having written a number of articles for the newly-established halfpenny paper, The Northern Echo, he was invited to be its editor. At the age of 22 and having never seen the inside of a newspaper office, Stead took up the post.(2) Under his control not only did the paper's circulation rise, but its readership spread beyond the region to the rest of the country. His articles on atrocities in Bulgaria were quoted in the Houses of Parliament and Gladstone, on meeting Stead, is said to have told him, 'To read the Echo is to dispense with the necessity of reading other papers.'(3) In 1880 he left Darlington to take up the assistant editorship of the Pall Mall Gazette. Promoted to editor five years later, Stead's series of exposes on child prostitution shocked the nation and eventually led to his own imprisonment. In his fight to raise the legal age of consent from 13 to 16, he had procured a child to prove his point and was the first to be arrested when the legislation was passed through. He spent nine weeks in prison. From then on, in celebration of his successful campaign against prostitution, he wore his prison clothes to the office on the yearly anniversary of his imprisonment.(4) His passage to America in 1912 was to attend a Peace Conference in New York. In spite of being booked on another ship and against the advice of a clairvoyant in London he was persuaded by a friend to join the Titanic's maiden voyage. It is said that when the Titanic hit an iceburg Stead was playing bridge. As it sank he continued with the game.(5) | Subjects: | Other | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Stonemason: Not known | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=7518... | Go to resource |
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