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 journalis ...

and campaigner for political reform.

Life

He was born at Tibbermore, Perthshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

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

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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