Henry Blundell (1813 – 15 June 1878), New Zealand newspaper founder, proprietor and publisher, "a man with two or three crafts at his fingers' ends",''The Evening Post'', Volume LXXXIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1915, Page 13 was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland. He brought his six children to Australia in 1860 and, moving permanently to New Zealand in 1863, began publishing the
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
evening daily newspaper The Evening Post on 8 February 1865.
Henry Blundell had worked 27 years for the
Dublin Evening Mail
The ''Dublin Evening Mail'' (renamed the ''Evening Mail'' in 1928) was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublin's evening newspapers.
Origins
Launched in 1823, it proved to be the longest lasting evening paper in Ireland. The paper was an instant suc ...
when as manager of the business he resigned following a disagreement over the treatment of staff. From Dublin he went first to Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, then deciding to try the then better-established
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
of New Zealand, left his family in Melbourne and spent 1861–2 with the established
Lyttelton Times
The ''Lyttelton Times'' was the first newspaper in Canterbury, New Zealand, publishing the first edition in January 1851. It was established by the Canterbury Association as part of its planned settlement of Canterbury and developed into a libera ...
as assistant-manager and then, having fetched his children from Melbourne,
Otago Daily Times
The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...
in 1863 before joining in the following year a new newspaper venture among "the glittering prospects of a well-paying goldfield" but Havelock's promising Wakamarina goldfield began to run out.
Henry's final move was to New Zealand's new national capital city,
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
. An Australian panel of three commissioners each an appointee of the governors of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, designated Wellington the seat of government for its central location and sheltered harbour and their decision took effect in February 1865. With his partner from Havelock, David Curle, who left the partnership that July, Henry and his three sons printed with a hand-operated press and distributed Wellington's first daily newspaper, The Evening Post, on 8 February, parliament officially sat in Wellington for the first time on 26 July 1865.
With the benefit of long experience in a capital city Henry Blundell pursued a judiciously independent yet politically liberal policy and ensured moderation in the published views of his staff. He was at first both manager and editor while still assisting in all functions and, to begin with, providing the newspaper's editorials. He was a genial and kindly man.Blundell, Henry (1814/1815? - 1878), ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography''. Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 196 available online /ref>
Nine years later Henry retired, beginning by paying a visit to his native Ireland,The Late Mr Henry Blundell, ''The Evening Post'', Volume XVI, Issue 144, 17 June 1878, Page 2 leaving his newspaper in the very capable hands of the three Blundell brothers; John (1841-1922), Henry (1844-1894), and Louis (1849-1934). Thereafter he travelled regularly between Wellington, Melbourne and Sydney though he remained based in Wellington.
Henry died aged 65, 15 June 1878, while on holiday in Sydney NSW Australia, and was interred at Wellington's
Bolton Street Cemetery
Bolton Street Memorial Park, formerly known as Bolton Street Cemetery, is the oldest cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand. Dating back to 1840, many notable people are buried here. Situated in the suburb of Thorndon, New Zealand, Thorndon, the Well ...
, and his grave is part of the memorial trail.
His great-grandson Sir Denis Blundell served as New Zealand's Governor-General from 1972 to 1977.
Posterity
The six children of Henry Blundell and his wife née Margaret McGowan were born between 1841 and 1852.
* John
* Ellen, Mrs John Stevenson
* Thomas Henry
* Margaret McGowan, Mrs Nicholas Marchant
* Louis Proctor
* Caroline Amelia, Mrs John Marshall