Arthur William à Beckett (25 October 1844 – 14 January 1909) was an English journalist and intellectual.

Biography

He was a younger son of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett and Mary Anne à Beckett, brother of Gilbert Arthur à Beckett and educated at Felsted School. Besides fulfilling other journalistic engagements, Beckett founded The Tomahawk which ran from 1867 to 1870 Beckett was on the staff of '' Punch'' from 1874 to 1902, edited the ''Sunday Times'' 1891–1895, and the ''Naval and Military Magazine'' in 1896. He gave an account of his father and his own reminiscences in ''The à Becketts of Punch'' (1903). A childhood friend (and distant relative) of W. S. Gilbert, Beckett briefly feuded with Gilbert in 1869, but the two patched up the friendship, and Gilbert even later collaborated on projects with Beckett's brother. He was married to Suzanne Frances Winslow, daughter of the noted

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

Forbes Benignus Winslow. He is buried in the churchyard at St Mary Magdalen, Mortlake.

Works

He published: * ''Comic Guide to the Royal Academy'', with his brother Gilbert (1863–64) * ''Fallen Amongst Thieves'' (1869) * ''Our Holiday in the Highlands'' (1874) * ''The Shadow Witness'' and ''The Doom of Saint Quirec'', with Francis Burnand (1875–76) * ''The Ghost of Greystone Grange'' (1877) * ''The Mystery of Mostyn Manor'' (1878) * ''Traded Out''; ''Hard Luck''; ''Stone Broke''; ''Papers from Pump Handle Court, by a Briefless Barrister'' (1884) * ''Modern Arabian Nights'' (1885) * ''The Member for Wrottenborough'' (1895) * ''Greenroom Recollections'' (1896) * ''The Modern Adam'' (1899) * ''London at the End of the Century'' (1900) *With F. C. Burnand he co-authored: ** ''The Doom of St. Querec'' (1875) ** ''The Shadow Witness'' (1876) He wrote for the theatre two three-act comedies: *''L.S.D.'' (

Royalty Theatre The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938.

, 1872); *''About Town'' ( Court Theatre, 1873, it ran for over 150 nights); and *''On Strike'' (Court Theatre, 1873, a domestic drama in one act) ; *''Faded Flowers'' ( The Haymarket); *''Long Ago'' (Royalty Theatre, 1882); *''From Father to Son'' (Liverpool, 1881, a dramatised version of his novel ''Fallen among Thieves'' written in 3 acts in cooperation with J. Palgrave Simpson).

Notes

References

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External links

* * * 1844 births 1909 deaths English male journalists English humorists Burials at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake À Beckett family {{UK-journalist-stub