Michael De La Bédoyère
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Count Michael Anthony Maurice de la Bédoyère (1900–1973) was an English writer, editor and journalist.


Life

He was educated at
Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing education for boarding school, boarding and day school, day pupils, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition. It is ...
,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, and took a first in "
Modern Greats Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in PPE was the Unive ...
" (PPE) at
Campion Hall Campion Hall is one of the four permanent private halls of the University of Oxford in England. A Catholic hall, it is run by the Society of Jesus and named after Edmund Campion, a martyr and fellow of St John's College, Oxford. The hall is lo ...
,
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
. His initial plans to become a
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
priest were abandoned. In 1930-1931 he lectured at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
. In 1934 he became editor of the ''
Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...
'', a post he held until 1962. During this time he transformed it from one of limited regional appeal into a more challenging and intellectual newspaper, which often brought it into conflict with the more conservative members of the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. Circulation increased to six figures. After he left, he founded the magazine ''Search''. During these years he wrote a number of books, mainly
biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...
such as those of Lafayette (1932),
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
(1935),
St Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he ...
(1962),as well as theological works such as ''Christianity in the Market Place'' (1943). During the late 1930s, de la Bédoyère's Catholic sympathies encouraged him to support in the pages of his newspaper the Nationalists led by
General Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republ ...
in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. He was strongly anti-communist and believed support for the Nationalist side would hasten peace and be in the interests of Spain. However, he criticised Franco's bombing of Republican cities, saying "We deplore it because there is ground for discussing any plan that may save the lives of women and innocent children, his own country-folk, who will not forget, because Franco has set himself an extremely high ideal and as such he should do all that he can to render less inhuman an inevitable war, and because such bombing does his cause infinite harm from the point of view of world propaganda." During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he almost went to prison for criticising what he saw as Churchill's appeasement of the "godless"
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. De la Bédoyère had five children by his first wife and cousin, Catherine Thorold (d. 1959) and two by his second wife, Charlotte (d. 2024). Both he and his first wife were grandchildren of Anthony Wilson Thorold, Anglican Bishop of Winchester, and were therefore
first cousins A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, c ...
to each other; their mutual great-uncle was
Henry Labouchère Henry Du Pré Labouchère (9 November 1831 – 15 January 1912) was an English politician, writer, publisher and theatre owner in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He is now most remembered for the Labouchère Amendment, which for the first ...
through his sister Emily, the wife of Bishop Thorold. Michael's son Quentin de la Bédoyère who died on 1 August 2023 contributed to the ''
Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...
''. Michael's eldest grandson is the historian
Guy de la Bédoyère Guy Martyn Thorold Huchet de la Bédoyère (born November 1957) is a British historian who has published widely on Roman Britain and other subjects and appeared regularly on ''Time Team'', an archaeological television series first broadcast o ...
. Martin, one of his sons by his second wife still runs Search Press, founded by his mother, Charlotte de la Bédoyère.


Works

Selected works: *''Lafayette. A Revolutionary Gentleman'', Jonathan Cape, London, 1933. *''George Washington. An English Judgment'', Harrap, London, 1935. *''Christian Crisis'', Catholic Book Club, London, 1940. *''Was it worth it, Wells? n account of the correspondence between the author and H.G. Wells on the book "Crux Ansata" by H.G. Wells.', Paternoster Publications, London, 1943. *''No Dreamers Weak. A study of Christian realism as against visionary utopianism in avoiding another Great War and making a real peace.'', John Miles, London, 1945. *''The greatest Catherine; the life of Catherine Benincasa, Saint of Siena'', Hollis & Carter, London, 1947. *''The Time for Action'', London, 1949. *''The Life of Baron von Hügel'', Dent, London 1951. *''Living Christianity'', Dent, London, 1954. *''The Layman in the Church'', Burns & Oates, 1955. *''Cardinal Bernard Griffin, Archbishop of Westminster'', Rockliff, 1955. *''The Archbishop and the Lady. The Story of Fénelon and Madam Guyon'', Collins, London, 1956. *''The Meddlesome Friar'', Collins, London, 1958. *''François de Sales'', Collins, London, 1960. *''Francis: a Biography of the Saint of Assisi'', Harper & Row, London, 1962. *''Objections to Roman Catholicism'' (ed.), Constable, London, 1964. *''The Future of Catholic Christianity'' (ed), J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & New York, 1966


References

*''
Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' *Obituary in the
Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...
20 July 1973 *F. Hale, 'From Pacifism to Neutrality to Advocacy of Francisco Franco: The Case of Michael de la Bedoyere', in ''The Chesterton Review'', Vol. XXIX, No. 4, 2003


External links


Search Press's home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:De La Bedoyere, Michael British newspaper editors English Roman Catholics People educated at Stonyhurst College University of Minnesota faculty 1900 births 1973 deaths Alumni of Campion Hall, Oxford 20th-century British biographers