Henry Lucy was born in Crosby, near Liverpool on the 5th of November 1842, the son of Robert Lucy, a rose-engine turner in the watch trade, and his wife, Margaret Ellen Kemp. He was baptised, William Henry on the 23rd of April 1843 at St. Michael's Church, Crosby. While he was still an infant the family moved to Everton where he attended the private Crescent School until August 1856. He began his working life as a junior clerk to Robert Smith, a hide merchant, of Redcross Sreet, Liverpool where he remained until 1864. While working there he had poetry published in the Liverpool Mercury and taught himself shorthand. This led him to working for the Shrewsbury Chronicle as a chief reporter from 1864, and also for the Shropshire News and the local Observer, when he wrote 'penny liners' of Shropshire news for London newspapers. Living in Paris during 1869 he learned French and, after giving notice to the Chronicle, in 1870, he joined the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette and in 1873 became Parliamentary reporter to the Liberal newspaper Daily News, with which paper he had a long connection in various capacities, including editor. The same year he married Emily Anne White on the 29th of October 1873, the daughter of his old schoolmaster at Liverpool, John White.
In 1880, Henry began writing for The Observer, the Cross Bench column, and continued to do this for 29 years. In 1881 he also joined the staff of Punch as contributor of its Parliamentary sketch over the signature of 'Toby M.P.' Here he wrote the weekly column 'The Essence of Parliament' for 35 years. When not writing under one of his pseudonyms, he was usually styled Henry W. Lucy. A long-running friend and fund-raiser for Shackleton's expeditions to the South Pole his generosity often exceeded Shackleton's expectations, guaranteeing their success. Mount Henry Lucy in Antarctica was named after him by Shackleton in 1909 as a thank you for his help in publicising his Nimrod Expedition and fund raising. He rose to national prominence during the constitutional crises of 1909–1910, during which he revealed to the Commons that Navy estimates had been as much as £60 million all along. His article was used as evidence by Hugh Foster MP to demand clarity from the government on the budgetary proposals being blocked in the Lords.
Sir Henry William Lucy was
an influential political correspondent whose expertise would set a
benchmark for journalism in the UK. Between 1864 and 1906, his flair for
parliamentary affairs made him one of the most respected journalists in
the country. An Editor of Punch Magazine and columnist at the Observer,
the Liverpool-born scriber was at the forefront of his profession for
four decades and was considered by many as a political equal to the
politicians he reported on. He originated the form of the modern
parliamentary sketch, and his model was imitated by numerous rivals.
Allowed special access to MP's and government officials, his humorous
words and sketches brought a new vim and vigour to political reportage.
He maintained close relations with many of the most important political
leaders of his time, including William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Randolph
Churchill, Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Rosebery. As author of nearly two
dozen books, mainly personal memoirs and parliamentary histories, Lucy
was read and appreciated by thousands of contemporaries, and in this
form his accounts of political life have influenced generations of
historians. He was one of the first working journalists to earn for
himself a position in respectable London society. Knighted in 1909, he
was the first lobby correspondent to be seen as a social equal of the
politicians in the Commons on whom he reported.
Sir Henry Lucy
died of bronchitis in 1924 aged 81 at Whitehorn, his country house at
Hythe, Kent. In 1935, his widow Lady Lucy donated £1,000 to found the
Sir Henry Lucy Scholarship at Merchant Taylor's School, Crosby. The couple did not have any children from their marriage.
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