Rudolph Chambers "R.C." Lehmann (3 January 1856 – 22 January 1929) was an English writer and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1906 to 1910. As a writer he was best known for three decades in which he was a major contributor to ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' as well as founding editor of ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'' magazine.

Life and career

Lehmann was born in

Ecclesall Ecclesall Ward—which includes the neighbourhoods of Banner Cross, Bents Green, Carterknowle, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southwester ...

near

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

. His father was Augustus Frederick Lehmann, a merchant and steel manufacturer whose brothers

Henri Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry (given name), Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List_of_rulers_named_Henry#France, List of rulers named Henry ...

and Rudolf were both noted academic artists. His mother, Nina Chambers, was the daughter of the Scottish author and naturalist Robert Chambers. Their social circle included

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

Lord Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subje ...

and other prominent figures. Lehmann attended

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. He was president of the

Cambridge Union Society The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1815, it is the oldest continuously running debatin ...

in 1876. He was also a rower, and captained the

First Trinity Boat Club The First and Third Trinity Boat Club is the rowing club of Trinity College in Cambridge, England. The club formally came into existence in 1946 when the First Trinity Boat Club and the Third Trinity Boat Club merged, although the two clubs had ...

, although in the trial eights for two years, he did not quite make the Cambridge eight. At

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

he finished last in every heat he entered, from the 1877 Visitors’ to the 1888 Wyfolds. Lehmann was admitted at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

on 6 November 1875 and called to the bar on 21 April 1880. He served on the South Eastern Circuit. In April 1889, Lehmann began editing the Cambridge undergraduates' magazine ''

'' and his first contribution to ''

'' appeared in the 14 December 1889 issue of ''

'', a dialogue with the title "Among the Amateurs". More pieces appeared in Punch, such as the series titled "Modern Types", and parodies of well-known contemporary authors under the title of "Mr Punch's Prize Novels", and within four months he had been appointed as one of the editorial staff and regular contributors, his writings for ''

'' stretching over thirty years, from 1889 to 1919. He wrote perhaps the first series of Sherlock Holmes parodies in ''Punch'' from August until early November 1894; they were collected in 1901 as a book entitled ''The Adventures of Picklock Holes.'' Lehmann RC Vanity Fair 1895-01-17

From 1891 to 1903 Lehmann coached Oxford and Cambridge, generally as a finishing coach for one or the other but in 1892 for both. He also coached at various times Leander,

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Brasenose College Boat Club Brasenose College Boat Club (BNCBC) is the rowing club of Brasenose College, Oxford, in Oxford, England. It is one of the oldest boat clubs in the world, having beaten Jesus College Boat Club in the first modern rowing race, held at Oxford in ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and the Berlin Rowing Club. "It was characteristic of him that he gave his valued services to two countries, three universities, and several colleges besides his own". He was Hon. Sec. of the Amateur Rowing Association from 1893 to 1901 and captain of the

Leander Club Leander Club, founded in 1818, is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, and the oldest non-academic club. It is based in Remenham in Berkshire, England and adjoins Henley-on-Thames. Only three other surviving clubs were founded prior to ...

in 1894 and 1895. He was considered an authority on

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

, about which he wrote a book, ''The Complete Oarsman'', and was the main contributor to ''Rowing'' (1898) in The Isthmian Library series. Lehmann also wrote verse, mostly light and was described as the "Poet Laureate of Rowing". He tried his hand as a lyricist in such works as '' His Majesty'', a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

in the

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

vein, with music by Alexander Mackenzie, a libretto by

F. C. Burnand Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera ''Cox and Box''. The son of ...

and additional lyrics by

Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes (23 December 1859 – 11 September 1933), better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...

, presented at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Pala ...

in 1897.''The Whitehall Review'', 27 February 1897 He was editor of the '' Daily News'' in 1901. In 1906 Lehmann was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the ad ...

which he held until 1910. He was sketched in ''A History of Punch'' by R.G.G. Price as indolent, but able to rouse to write a short piece, and as having given some of that character to the rest of the staff. Other books derived from ''

'' writing, i.e. ''The Vagabond and Other Poems from Punch''. Lehmann lived with his family at

Bourne End, Buckinghamshire Bourne End is a village mostly in the civil parishes in England, parish of Wooburn and Bourne End, Wooburn, but partly in that of Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about five miles (8 km) south-east of High Wycombe and three ...

in a large house called Fieldhead. He was a JP for the county. He was

High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire The High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. High Sheriff, Sheriff is the olde ...

in 1901. Lehmann died in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

in 1929, aged 73. Married to an American, Alice Marie Davis (1873–1956), his children were Helen Lehmann (1899–1985), the novelist

Rosamond Lehmann Rosamond Nina Lehmann (3 February 1901 – 12 March 1990) was an English novelist and translator. Her first novel, ''Dusty Answer'' (1927), was a ''succès de scandale''; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate ...

(1901–1990), the actress

Beatrix Lehmann Beatrix Alice Lehmann (1 July 1903 – 31 July 1979) was a British actress, theatre director, writer and novelist. Early life and family Lehmann was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. She came from a family of notable achievers: the third o ...

(1903–1979) and the writer and publisher

John Lehmann Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann (2 June 1907 – 7 April 1987) was an English poet and man of letters. He founded the periodicals ''New Writing'' and ''The London Magazine'', and the publishing house of John Lehmann Limited. Biography Born in ...

(1907–1987).

References

External links

* * * . *
"A ramshackle room" (poem)
* The Rowers of Vanity Fair – Lehmann, Rudolf Chambers – "Rudy" {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehmann, R. C. 1856 births 1929 deaths Sportspeople from Sheffield People from High Wycombe People educated at Highgate School Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English male journalists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Presidents of the Cambridge Union UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 Lehmann family Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta English people of German descent English people of Scottish descent High Sheriffs of Buckinghamshire Members of Leander Club English male poets Harvard Crimson rowing coaches Rowing coaches