John Edwin Hilary Skinner (1839–1894) was an English barrister and journalist, known as a war correspondent.

Life

The elder son of Allen Maclean Skinner, Q.C., and a descendant of

Matthew Skinner Matthew Skinner (22 October 1689 – 21 October 1749) was an English serjeant-at-law, judge and politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons from 1734 to 1738. Life A great-grandson of Bishop Robert Skinner (bishop), Rober ...

, was born in London in January 1839, and educated at London University, where he graduated LL.D. in 1861. In the same year he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and went the northern circuit. A good linguist, he obtained a commission from the '' Daily News'' as special correspondent with the Danish Army in the Second Schleswig War. He was present during the campaign down to the

Battle of Als The Battle of Als ( da, Slaget om Als; german: Übergang nach Alsen) was fought on 29 June 1864 during the Second Schleswig War between Denmark and Prussia. It was the last major engagement of the war, as the Prussians under General Herwarth ...

at the end of June, when Christian IX of Denmark presented him with the Dannebrog order. He visited America, and then reported the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

of 1866. In 1867 Skinner ran the blockade into Crete, then part of the Ottoman Empire. During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, he was attached to the staff of the Crown Prince of Prussia's staff, and described the war from the

battle of Wörth The Battle of Wörth, also known as the Battle of Reichshoffen or as the Battle of Frœschwiller, refers to the second battle of Wörth, which took place on 6 August 1870 in the opening stages of the Franco-Prussian War (the first Battle of ...

to the battle of Sedan. He carried his account of the decisive battle from Donchery, near Sedan, to London, riding neck and neck with William Howard Russell of '' The Times'', and crossing from Ostend in the same boat. Their stories appeared simultaneously on 6 September, having been anticipated only in the '' Pall Mall Gazette''. For a short time, in the spring of 1881, Skinner was assistant judicial commissioner in Cyprus. In 1885 he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of against

Lord Randolph Churchill Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union of ...

. Skinner died at

Sétif Sétif ( ar, سطيف, ber, Sṭif) is the capital of the Sétif Province in Algeria. It is one of the most important cities of eastern Algeria and the country as a whole, since it is considered the trade capital of the country. It is an inner ci ...

in Algeria, where he had gone for his health, early in November 1894.

Works

Skinner wrote: *''The Tale of Danish Heroism'' (London, 1865) attempted to deal with the Schleswig-Holstein question. *''After the Storm'' (London, 1866), dealing with the United States, Canada (of which he advocated the independence), and Mexico. *''Roughing it in Crete'' (London, 1867), advocating the cession of Crete to Greece. *''Turkish Rule in Crete'' in the Eastern Question Association papers (No. ix. 1877), against Turkish government.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Skinner, John Edwin Hilary 1839 births 1894 deaths English barristers English male journalists 19th-century British journalists English male non-fiction writers 19th-century English male writers 19th-century English lawyers