Frank Lewis Dowling (18 October 1823 – 10 October 1867, in Norfolk Street,

Strand, London Strand (or the Strand) is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4 ...

) was a British

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

. Dowling was the son of

Vincent George Dowling Vincent George Dowling (1785–1852) was an English journalist. He was an influential figure in the development of sports journalism, who also worked covertly as a government informer. Life The son of Vincent Dowling (1756–1825), an Irish journ ...

. He was probably born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was called to the bar at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, 24 November 1848. He became editor of ''

Bell's Life in London ''Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle'' was an English weekly sporting paper published as a pink broadsheet between 1822 and 1886. History ''Bell's Life'' was founded by Robert Bell, a London printer-publisher. Bell sold it to William In ...

'' on the illness of his father in 1851. He was remarkable for his urbanity, and for the fair manner in which he discharged the duties of arbitrator and

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

in numerous cases of disputes connected with the prize-ring. He had the control of the arrangements of the international fight between

Thomas Sayers Tom Sayers (15 or 25 May 18268 November 1865) was an English bare-knuckle prize fighter. There were no formal weight divisions at the time, and although Sayers was only five feet eight inches tall and never weighed much more than 150 pounds, ...

and

John C. Heenan John Camel Heenan, also known as the Benicia Boy (2 May 1834 – 28 October 1873) was an American Bare-knuckle boxing, bare-knuckle prize fighter. Though highly regarded, he had only three formal fights in his career, losing two and drawing one. ...

, 17 April 1860, and it was by his advice that the combatants agreed to consider it a drawn battle, and to each receive a belt. He married, 29 Oct. 1853, Frances Harriet, who was the fourth daughter of Benjamin Humphrey Smart, of 55 Connaught Terrace,

Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Pa ...

. He edited and brought out the annual issues of ''Fistiana, or the Oracle of the Ring'', from 1852 to 1864, besides preparing a further edition which did not appear until the year after his death. He died from consumption at his lodgings.

References

External links

* G. C. Boase
‘Dowling, Frank Lewis (1823–1867)’
rev. Dennis Brailsford, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 29 Dec 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Frank Lewis 1823 births 1867 deaths English newspaper editors Members of the Middle Temple 19th-century British journalists English male journalists 19th-century English male writers