Background
Leonard Dudeney was born in Brighton in 1875, the son of George and Jane Dudeney. His father was a merchant and his family moved to Bedford at some point during his teenage years where he continued his education at Bedford Modern School.
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Leonard Dudeney
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Career
He was acting and assistant editor in Shanghai for the North China Daily News between 1902 and 1907, Parliamentary Gallery and Lobby correspondent at the Daily Express between 1916 and 1918 and held the same position at the Daily Sketch between 1921 and 1944. As editor of the Leicester Pioneer between 1908 and 1911, when Ramsay MacDonald was Member of Parliament for Leicester, MacDonald regularly sought counsel from Dudeney on Far Eastern matters where Dudeney was experienced and connected. He was the eldest of eight children and educated initially at Brighton Grammar School.
Dudeney started his journalistic career in 1892 with the Brighton Gazette.
He became editor of the Farnham Herald in 1898 and was made Assistant Editor of the Aldershot News in 1900. Dudeney returned to England in 1907 where he was made Editor of the Leicester Pioneer at the time when Ramsay MacDonald was Member of Parliament for Leicester.
MacDonald regularly sought counsel from Dudeney on Far Eastern matters as a result of Dudeney’s intimate knowledge of the region derived from his time as acting and assistant editor of the North China Daily News and they became friends. Dudeney left the Leicester Pioneer in 1911 when he became Labour sub-editor of the Daily Citizen until 1915.
He was parliamentary correspondent at the Daily Express between 1916 and 1918, and was a journalist at the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. In 1921 Dudeney became Parliamentary Gallery and Lobby correspondent at the Daily Sketch, a position he held until 1944 when he retired from staff journalism.
Achievements
Membership
He was acting and assistant editor of the newspaper until 1907 and lived throughout that time in Shanghai where he was a member of the Shanghai Club. He was a member of the National Liberal Club.
