Sir Douglas Straight (22 October 1844 – 4 June 1914) was an English lawyer,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, judge and journalist.

Life

Straight was born in London and was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

. Until 1865 he engaged in journalism, but then became a lawyer and soon developed an extensive practice, especially at the Central Criminal Court, London. From 1870-74, Straight was a member of the

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Member of Parliament for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. In 1879, he was made a judge of the High Court of Judicature at

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

in India. To mark this appointment, '' Vanity Fair'' caricatured him: ''The Hon Mr Justice Straight, the new Judge''. After thirteen years of judicial service abroad he was knighted soon after his return from India in 1892.Punch, 27 August 1892
In 1876, Straight was admitted by redemption to the Freedom of the

Worshipful Company of Bowyers The Worshipful Company of Bowyers is one of the livery companies of the City of London. Originally, bowyers (longbow-makers) and fletchers (arrow-makers) composed one organisation. However, in 1371, the fletchers petitioned the lord mayor to ...

of the City of London. He served two terms of office as Master in 1900–1902 and 1910–12. Four years later, Straight resumed work as a journalist, serving as joint editor of the ''

Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ge ...

'' (1893–1896) and then editor of the ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed int ...

'' (from 1896). He was a well known society personage during this time and as an editor he corresponded with many of the literary names of the day. Straight retired "from everything except the task of trying to enjoy himself" in 1909,"Straight to Retire"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 11 October 1908. and died in London five years later, aged 69.

Works

In 1867, Straight wrote a pseudonymous memoir of his time at Harrow entitled ''Harrow Recollections. By an Old Harrovian'', signing the preface with the name Sidney Daryl. This was a pseudonym he went on to use for a number of publications. Halkett, Samuel & Laing, John, ''A Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain etc.'', 1883 He wrote plays and stories and about topics that interested him. In 1868, for instance, he compiled ''Routledge's Handbook of Quoits and Bowls''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Straight, Douglas 1844 births British India judges Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Harrow School English magazine editors Knights Bachelor UK MPs 1868–1874 1914 deaths