Stead, William Thomas (1849–1912)

British journalist. In 1871 he became editor of the Darlington Northern Echo, and, on moving to London, England, was appointed assistant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette in 1880, succeeding John Morley as editor in 1883. Stead left the Pall Mall in 1889, and subsequently founded the Review of Reviews in 1890. He also founded Borderland, a spiritualistic journal, 1893–97.

Stead was born in Embleton, Alnwick, England. He was educated at Wakefield College. Stead's series of articles ‘The Maiden Tribute to Modern Babylon’, on the traffic in young girls in London, though it secured the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, resulted in his spending three months in Holloway prison for ‘procuring a child for immoral purposes’. He also did much to bring about the dispatch of Charles Gordon to the Sudan. His books include The Truth about Russia (1888), The Pope and the New Era (1889), If Christ came to Chicago (1893), and Mrs Booth (1900). He was drowned when the ocean liner, Titanic, sank.