William Henry Stowe facts for kids

William Henry Stowe (January 1, 1825 – June 22, 1855) was a smart scholar and a journalist. He was born in Buckingham on January 1, 1825.

Early Life and Education

William went to school in Iffley, near Oxford, and then spent six months at King Edward's School, Birmingham. After leaving school in 1840, he studied medicine for three years in Buckingham. However, he didn't enjoy medicine, so he decided to go to Wadham College, Oxford, in January 1844.

At Oxford, William became good friends with important people like George Granville Bradley (who later became the Dean of Westminster) and John Conington. In 1848, he did very well in his final classical exams, getting top marks. After graduating, he worked as a private tutor in Oxford for two years.

Working for The Times Newspaper

In 1851, William started working for The Times newspaper. He wrote articles about books and literature. One of his famous articles compared the writing styles of Thackeray and Dickens. In March 1852, he earned a special fellowship at Oriel College and later joined Lincoln's Inn, which is a place where lawyers train.

In May 1852, John Walter, the owner of The Times, gave William a full-time job on the newspaper's staff. William mostly wrote about literature, but he also wrote many important articles on different topics. Some of his reviews, like those for John William Kaye's History of the War in Afghanistan and Dickens's David Copperfield, were even published again in a book called Essays from the Times. He also wrote interesting articles about Niebuhr's Letters and The Mechanical Inventions of James Watt.

Reporting from the Crimean War

In 1855, The Times newspaper started a special fund to help British soldiers who were sick or hurt in the Crimea. William Stowe was chosen to go to the East to manage this fund and make sure the aid reached the soldiers. He arrived in Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the end of February. From there, he went to Scutari (now Üsküdar) and then to Balaklava.

In these places, William visited hospitals and army camps. He wrote reports about the problems with hygiene and health conditions. Frances Margaret Taylor, who wrote a book about the hospitals, said, "Others talked, Mr. Stowe acted."

On March 16, William's first letter from the Crimea was published in The Times. It described the hospitals in Balaklava and the health of the army. He sent many more reports about these issues until the middle of 1855. Two of his letters described the third major attack on Sebastopol. These letters were even included in a book about the war by another famous correspondent, William Howard Russell.

His Legacy

Sadly, William's health suffered because of the hard work and unhealthy conditions in the Crimea. He died from a camp fever in Balaklava on June 22, 1855. He was buried in the cemetery there.

His friends later built a special monument, called a cenotaph, in his memory in the chapel of Oriel College. John Walter, the owner of The Times, wrote an article praising William on July 6, 1855. He said William's reports from the Crimea showed "an astonishing effort of intellectual and descriptive talent."