Bruce Ingram

Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram MC D.Litt. (5 May 1877 – 8 January 1963) was a publishing entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the editor of The English Illustrated Magazine (September 1899 – September 1901), The Sketch, and The Illustrated London News from 1900 to 1963.[1] Ingram was credited with introducing greater use of photography in the News and introducing the Rembrandt Regalio process which enabled faster printing of the paper.[2]

Life

Ingram was born in London, England, the second of three sons to Sir William Ingram, 1st Baronet, and Mary Eliza Collingwood Stirling (d.1925).[3] His maternal grandfather Edward Stirling was born in Jamaica to a Scottish planter and an unnamed woman of colour. He concealed his racial identity and later settled in South Australia, where he was elected to parliament; his sons (Ingram's uncles) Lancelot and Edward Charles Stirling were also members of parliament.[4]

Ingram was Chairman of Illustrated London News and Sketch Ltd., Director of Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News Ltd, and President of Illustrated Newspapers Ltd.[5] These had been founded by his grandfather, Herbert Ingram.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal East Kent Yeomanry on 14 May 1898, and promoted to lieutenant on 14 March 1900.[6] The Yeomanry regiments were reserve forces. During the First World War he had a distinguished service record. He joined as a lieutenant in the East Kent Yeomanry, then transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery in France and rose to the rank of captain. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in 1917 and was mentioned in dispatches three times.[7]

He was also Hon. Vice-president, Society for Nautical Research, Hon. Keeper of Drawings, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and Hon. Adviser on pictures and drawings, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.[5]

He was knighted in the 1950 King's Birthday Honours List and received the French Legion d'Honneur in the same year.

In 1957 (to mark his 80th birthday) he presented 700 seascape drawings by the Van de Velde family to the Greenwich Maritime Museum.[8]

Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) in 1960.[3]

After death, he left a substantial number of paintings (mainly seascapes and naval scenes) to the Greenwich Maritime Museum now known as The Ingram Collection. Major donations of art and archaeological artefacts were also made to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Scottish Museum. He also donated the painting Angelique et Medor to the Louvre in 1953.[9]

Notable employees

Ingram chose his journalists and columnists carefully. In 1905 he employed G. K. Chesterton to write the Notebook feature in his papers. On Chesterton's death in 1936 Ingram replaced him with Arthur Bryant.

Family

In 1904 he married Amy Foy, they had one daughter, Averil Stirling Bruce (b.1905), and one son, David Martin Bruce Ingram (1917–1930).[10] In 1947, following his wife's death, he married Lily (d. 1962), daughter of the playwright Sydney Grundy.[11] They had one son, who died in childhood.[3]

Publications

Over and above his journalism, Ingram was a writer on subjects pertaing to his passions: Egyptian archaeology and maritime history (linking to his love of seascapes). His works include:

  • Three Sea Journals of the Stuart Times (1936)

Other notable contributions

Ingram organised and paid for the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour to the losses of the Royal Air Force which stands in Westminster Abbey.

See also

References
  1. Magazine Data Galactic Central, 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  2. A History of The Illustrated London News by Edward B. Orme 1986 iln.org.uk, 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014. Archived here.
  3. "Bruce Ingram". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34103. Retrieved 3 October 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. Robertson, Beth M. (2022). "Edward Stirling: Embodiment and beneficiary of slave-ownership" (PDF). Australian Journal of Biography and History. 6 (6): 103–124. doi:10.22459/AJBH.06.2022.
  5. Who's Who 2014 and Who Was Who A & C Black, 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  6. "No. 27173". The London Gazette. 13 March 1900. p. 1717.
  7. "Person Page". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  8. Luke Herrmann; Michael Robinson (May 1963). "Sir Bruce Ingram as a Collector of Drawings". The Burlington Magazine. 105 (722): 202+204–205+207. JSTOR 874036.
  9. "Site officiel du musée du Louvre". Cartelfr.louvre.fr. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  10. "Person Page". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  11. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 2, pg 2048
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