Robert Stephen Rintoul (12 January 1787 – 22 April 1858) was a Scottish

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and campaigner for political reform.

Life

He was born at

Tibbermore Tibbermore is a small village situated about west of Perth, Scotland. Its parish extends to Aberuthven; however, the church building is now only used occasionally for weddings and funerals. Previously known as Tippermuir, it was the site of t ...

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in 1787, and educated at the

Aberdalgie Aberdalgie (Gaelic: ''Obar Dheilgidh'', 'Confluence of the Thorn-Stream') is a small village in the Scottish council area of Perth and Kinross. It is southwest of Perth, and lies between the B9112 road, to the north, and the River Earn, to the ...

parish school. After serving his apprenticeship to the printing trade he became the printer and subsequently the editor of the '' Dundee Advertiser''. In 1808, in his first year in Dundee, he came into conflict with the Provost of Dundee,

Alexander Riddoch Alexander Riddoch DL (1745–1822) was a Scottish merchant who served eight non-consecutive terms as Provost of Dundee. His nicknames included the "Old Hawk". "The Gudeman of Blacklunans" and "Archdeacon of the Self-Elected". In his role i ...

, and together with George Kinloch began a local radical movement. In 1819 he was invited to

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 ...

with Riddoch as part of a parliamentary debate on the Burgh Reform Act. In 1811 he was promoted from printer to printer and editor of The Advertiser. He stepped down from these roles in February 1825. In 1826 he went to

where he was editor of ''The Atlas'' before, in July 1828 with the assistance of friends, founding ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''. In this publication Rintoul strongly supported the

Reform Bill In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

, and to him was due the catchphrase "The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill". After publishing and managing the affairs of ''The Spectator'' for more than thirty years, he sold it in February 1858.https://abertay.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ArtfulandAmbitiousIndividual_r.pdf He died in London on 22 April 1858.

References

* British male journalists 1787 births 1858 deaths Scottish journalists The Spectator editors British magazine founders People from Perthshire 19th-century British businesspeople People associated with Dundee {{UK-journalist-stub