| Thomas Chenery | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1826 Barbados |
| Died | 11 February 1884 (aged 57–58) London, England |
| Education | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Editor of The Times |
| Spouse(s) | None |
Thomas Chenery (1826 – 11 February 1884) was an English scholar and editor of the British newspaper The Times.
Chenery was born in Barbados to John Chenery, a West Indies merchant. He was educated at Eton and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[1] Immediately after taking an ordinary degree in 1854, he was recruited by Mowbray Morris to work for The Times, and was sent to Istanbul. Arriving in March 1854, he soon proved himself an excellent diplomaric correspondent, covering the Crimean War mainly from Istanbul but occasionally form the front, where he relieved William Howard Russell. It was while he was in Istanbul that Chenery met Percy Smythe, who first sparked Chenery's interest in philological studies, a field in which he would subsequently gain prominence.[2]
After the war Chenery returned to London, where he worked as a leader writer for The Times for many years. During this time he continued his studies of the Orient. Among the languages he spoke was Arabic, Hebrew, modern Greek, and Turkish, and was one of the panelists involved in preparing the Old Testament portion of the Revised Version of the Bible. His translation of the Arabic classic The Assemblies of Al-Hariri led to his appointment as lord almoner's professor of Arabic at Oxford, and he also served as secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society.[3]
In 1877 John Walker selected Chenery as John Thadeus Delane's successor as editor of the paper. He was then an experienced publicist, particularly well versed in Oriental affairs, an indefatigable worker, with a rapid and comprehensive judgment, though he lacked Delane's sociability and intuition for public opinion. Despite this, he brought about a number of innovations, bringing in more writers with scholarly backgrounds to employ their respective expertise. His background as a diplomatic correspondent and his choice of capable reporters for foreign postings revived the paper's reputation for international news coverage. Yet Chenery was less successful in resisting the increasingly partisan slant of the paper imposed by Walter, a member of the Conservative Party. He died in London on 11 February 1884 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery.
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Thadeus Delane |
Editor of The
Times 1877 - 1884 |
Succeeded by George Earle Buckle |
THOMAS CHENERY (1826-1884), English scholar and editor of The Times, was born in 1826 at Barbados. He was educated at Eton and Caius College, Cambridge. Having been called to the bar, he went out to Constantinople as The Times correspondent just before the Crimean War, and it was under the influence there of Algernon Smythe (afterwards Lord Strangford) that he first turned to those philological studies in which he became eminent. After the war he returned to London and wrote regularly for The Times for many years, eventually succeeding Delane as editor in 1877. He was then an experienced publicist, particularly well versed in Oriental affairs, an indefatigable worker, with a rapid and comprehensive judgment, though he lacked Delane's intuition for public opinion. It was as an Orientalist, however, that he had meantime earned the highest reputation, his knowledge of Arabic and Hebrew being almost unrivalled and his gift for languages exceptional. In 1868 he was appointed Lord Almoner's professor of Arabic at Oxford, and retained his position until he became editor of The Times. He was one of the company of revisers of the Old Testament. He was secretary for some time to the Royal Asiatic Society, and published learned editions of the Arabic classic The Assemblies of Al-Hariri and of the Machberoth Ithiel. He died in London on the 11th of February 1884.
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