Cecil Edward Chesterton (12 November 1879 – 6 December 1918) was an English journalist and political commentator, known particularly for his role as editor of '' The New Witness'' from 1912 to 1916, and in relation to its coverage of the

Marconi scandal The Marconi scandal was a British political scandal that broke in mid-1912. Allegations were made that highly placed members of the Liberal government under the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith had profited by improper use of information about the g ...

Life

He was the younger brother of G. K. Chesterton, a first cousin once removed of A. K. Chesterton, and a close associate of

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

. While the ideas of

distributism Distributism is an economic theory asserting that the world's productive assets should be widely owned rather than concentrated. Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, distributism was based upon Catholic social teaching princi ...

came from all three, and Arthur Penty, he was the most ideological and combative by temperament. His death, according to his widow, removed the theorist of the movement. He was born in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London, and educated at St Paul's School, then worked for a small publisher for a time. He then qualified as surveyor and estate agent, with a view to entering his father's business, which is still flourishing today. In 1901 he joined the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

, with which he was closely involved for about six years. From 1907 he wrote for A. R. Orage's ''

The New Age ''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938),credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief politi ...

''. In 1908 he published an anonymous biography of his better-known brother, ''G. K. Chesterton, a Criticism'', but his authorship was quickly discovered. Chesterton had been one of the 'Anti-Puritan League' of the 1890s, with

Stewart Headlam Stewart Duckworth Headlam (12 January 1847 – 18 November 1924) was an English Anglican priest who was involved in frequent controversy in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Headlam was a pioneer and publicist of Christian socialism, ...

(who stood bail for

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

Edgar Jepson Edgar Alfred Jepson (28 November 1863 – 12 April 1938) was an English author. He largely wrote mainstream adventure and detective fiction, but also supernatural and fantasy stories. He sometimes used the pseudonym R. Edison Page. Early life E ...

and his brother; and then a member of Henry Scott Holland's Christian Social Union. While Chesterton was writing from a socialist point of view for Orage, he was also moving to an Anglo-Catholic religious stance. In 1911 he started editorial work for Belloc, with whom he wrote in ''The Party System'', a criticism of

party politics ''Party Politics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of political science. The journal's editor is Paul Webb of the University of Sussex, UK. It has been in publication since 1995 and is currently published b ...

. In 1912 he formally became a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. That same year he bought Belloc's failing weekly '' Eye-Witness''; Charles Granville who published it had been made bankrupt. He renamed it ''The New Witness'', editing it for four years before enlisting in the army, and turning it into a

scandal sheet Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism, which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as a half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, an ...

. His persistent attacks on prominent political figures involved in the

(such as Lloyd George), and his public defence of his position in terms of a 'Jewish problem', have left him with a reputation as an anti-Semite. He was successfully brought to court by Godfrey Isaacs, one of those attacked, although the damages awarded were nominal. A government investigation revealed that high government officials had engaged in

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...

in the stock of Marconi's American subsidiary, but the quantity of stocks they were known to have purchased was relatively small. On 7 January 1914 Chesterton acted for the defence in the mock-trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood in Covent Garden. G.K. Chesterton was Judge and Cecil's future wife played Princess Puffer.

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

was foreman of the jury. In 1916 he married journalist Ada Elizabeth Jones, later known as a writer, after a long courtship.Mark Knight, 'Chesterton, Ada Elizabeth (1869–1962)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 201
accessed 28 Feb 2017
/ref> He joined the

Highland Light Infantry The Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881. It took part in the First World War, First and World War II, Second World Wars, until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 t ...

as a private soldier. His brother Gilbert took over the paper, with Ada as Secretary and Business Manager. Eventually in 1925 Gilbert, with great reluctance, allowed it to be renamed ''

G. K.'s Weekly ''G.K.'s Weekly'' was a British publication founded in 1925 (with its pilot edition surfacing in late 1924) by writer G. K. Chesterton, continuing until his death in 1936. Its articles typically discussed topical cultural, political, and socio- ...

'' because his name was very well-known and likely to attract interest. He was three times wounded fighting in France, and died there in a hospital of

nephritis Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy. Types * Glomerulonephritis is inflammation ...

on 6 December 1918. His wife Ada had rushed to his bedside and she arrived just before he died. She was his only relative at his funeral, when he was buried at the Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille. Although sick, he had refused to leave his post until the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

. On 13 December, G. K. Chesterton would report his death in the ''New Witness'', noting that "He lived long enough to march to the victory which was for him a supreme vision of liberty and the light."

Works

''Gladstonian Ghosts.''
London: S.C. Brown Langham & Co., 1905.
''G.K. Chesterton: a Criticism.''
London: Alston Rivers, 1908. * ''The People's Drink.'' London: The New Age Press, 1909. * ''Party and People: A Criticism of the Recent Elections and Their Consequences.'' London: Alston Rivers, Limited, 1910.
''The Party System,''
with Hilaire Belloc. London: Stephen Swift, 1911.
''Nell Gwyn.''
London: T.N. Foulis, 1912 (1st Pub. 1911).
''The Prussian hath said in his Heart.''
London: Chapman and Hall, 1914.
''Debate between George Sylvester Viereck and Cecil Chesterton''
New York: The Fatherland Corporation, 1915.
''The Perils of Peace.''
London: T.W. Laurie, Ltd., 1916.
''A History of the United States.''
London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1919.

Articles

"Democracy and the Great State."
In: ''Socialism and the Great State.'' New York and London: Harper & Brother Publishers, 1912.
"The Barbarians."
In: Alfred Bingham (ed.), ''Handbook of the European War.'' New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1914.
"The Art of Controversy: Macaulay, Huxley and Newman,"
''The Catholic World,'' Vol. CV, April/September 1917.

Other

* Hubert Bland, ''Essays,'' with an Introduction by Cecil Chesterton. London: Max Goschen, Ltd., 1914.

References

* Chesterton, Ada Elizabeth (1941). ''The Chestertons.'' London:

Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

. * Pearce, Joseph (1996). ''Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton''. London:

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

. * Sewell, Brocard (1975). ''Cecil Chesterton.'' Faversham: Saint Albert's Press. * Squire, John C. (1920). "Cecil Chesterton." In: ''Books in General,'' Third series. London:

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

, pp. 119–121.

Notes

External links

* * *
Works by Cecil Chesterton
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

American Cecil Chesterton Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesterton, Cecil 1879 births 1918 deaths 19th-century English journalists 19th-century English male writers 19th-century English non-fiction writers 19th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century English journalists 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century Roman Catholics Anglo-Catholic socialists British Army personnel of World War I Burials in Hauts-de-France Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Deaths from nephritis Distributism English Christian socialists English male journalists English male non-fiction writers English Roman Catholic writers Highland Light Infantry soldiers Members of the Fabian Society Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea People educated at St Paul's School, London People from Kensington