Andrew Osmond (satirist)

Andrew Philip Kingsford Osmond (16 March 1938 – 14 April 1999)[1] was a British diplomat, novelist and the original Lord Gnome,[1] as well as being one of the co-founders of Private Eye magazine in 1961.

Born in Barnoldby-le-Beck, Lincolnshire,[2] on 16 March 1938, Osmond was the son of Kingsford Osmond, a scion of a well-known Lincolnshire farming family. Educated at Harrow School and Brasenose College, Oxford (1961), Osmond joined the Foreign Office in 1962, being posted first to West Africa – where he met Douglas Hurd – then subsequently Rome.

He gave Private Eye its name, but had sold the majority of his shares less than a year after its launch.[3] He returned to the Eye as managing director in 1969, increasing sales by 160% during his four-year tenure.[1]