Sir Frank Hillyard Newnes was a British publisher, businessman and Liberal politician.
Background
Frank Hillyard Newnes was born in Manchester, the son of George Newnes, the newspaper publisher and Liberal Member of Parliament first for Newmarket and later for Swansea. His mother was Priscilla Newnes (née Hillyard) the daughter of the Reverend James Hillyard. He had an older brother who died aged eight years and whose death was said to have devastated his father.
In 1913 Newnes married Emmeline Augusta Louisa (Lena), the daughter of the late Sir Albert de Rutzen, who had held the office of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Bow Street.
Education
Newnes was educated privately before attending Clare College, Cambridge where he graduated with Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1897.
Career
Lena Newnes became a well known society hostess and philanthropist, raising thousands of pounds for various charitable and educational causes. She was a Dame of Grace of the Order of Street John of Jerusalem. She died in 1939. Newnes married again in 1946.
There were no children from either marriage.
On leaving university in 1897, Newnes followed his father into his publishing business, eventually becoming President of George Newnes Limited. He also became Chairman of Country Life, Limited and a director of other companies in the publishing trade, including the Westminster Gazette, the Liberal supporting newspaper founded by his father.
The paper was dubbed the ‘pea-green incorruptible’ – Mr Gladstone having personally approved its green colour. Newnes also had other commercial and investment interests and served on the boards of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society and Norwich Union Life Insurance Society.
He also served as a director of City & Commercial Investment Trusts Limited and Redeemable Securities Trust Limited and was Chairman of Associated Weavers, Limited and Armoride Limited.
In addition to his business career, Newnes was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1898, although it is not recorded that he ever practiced the law. Newnes also followed his father in his political persuasions. However the seat returned to the Tories at the January 1910 election by the even narrower margin of 341 votes.
He did not stand for Parliament again.
However his father died in 1910 and Newnes inherited the baronetcy. In 1915, during World War I, Newnes was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Newnes’ main non-political interests were in public health matters and he also understandably busied himself with press related charities. In his publishing charity work, Newnes became President of the Printers Pension Corporation and was a vice-president of the Periodical Proprietors Association.
In 1949 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of Street John.
Newnes died in Western Australia on 10 July 1955 at the age of 78 years. As he had no children the Newnes baronetcy became extinct on his death.
Membership
28th United Kingdom Parliament]
A sometime member of the National Liberal Council, he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw in north Nottinghamshire at the 1906 general election, gaining the seat from the Conservatives by a majority of 531 votes. He was a member of the Voluntary Hospitals Committee for London, a member of the management committees of the Royal Free Hospital and its Medical School and also served as Chairman of the Post-Graduate Institute of Dental Surgery and of the Eastman Dental Hospital.