Horace Mayhew, from a photograph by Bassano

Horace Mayhew (1816 – 30 April 1872) was an English journalist, a writer of humorous sketches and a sub-editor of the magazine Punch.

Life

He was born in London, son of Joshua Dorset Joseph Mayhew, a lawyer, and his wife Mary Ann Fenn. Henry Mayhew, a co-founder of the magazine Punch, and the writer Augustus Mayhew were brothers. He initially trained to be a lawyer, but turned to journalism.[1] In 1845 he was one of the contributors to George Cruikshank's Table Book. For a time he was Mark Lemon's sub-editor on the staff of Punch. In December 1847 his play Plum Pudding Pantomime was produced at the Olympic Theatre.[2]

The Toothache, "imagined by Horace Mayhew and realized by George Cruikshank".

In 1848 Mayhew published the humorous sketches Change for a Shilling, Model Men, Model Women and Children,[1] and an edition of Cruikshank's Comic Almanac; in 1849 A Plate of Heads, with Paul Gavarni's drawings; The Toothache, with drawings by Cruikshank; another issue of the Comic Almanac, with Cruikshank's illustrations; and Guy Faux.[2]

From 1852, the year it passed under Douglas Jerrold's editorship, he became a frequent contributor to Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. In 1853 he wrote Letters left at the Pastry-cook's. The death of his father about 1857 left him in easy circumstances, and he wrote little in later years.[2] Mayhew married in 1868 Emily Sarah Fearon, the widowed daughter of an army officer; they had no children.[1]

John Andrew Hamilton wrote: "He was a handsome, captivating man, a brilliant talker and raconteur, and was very popular in society."[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Mayhew, Horace". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18434. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c d Hamilton, John Andrew (1894). "Mayhew, Horace" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 154.

Attribution

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