Edward Peter Mathers

Edward Peter Mathers FGS FRGS (19 August 1850, Edinburgh – 13 October 1924, Kensington) was a British author, editor, and newspaper proprietor.^[1]

"South Africa". Caption for caricature of Mr Edward Peter Mathers by Spy
in Vanity Fair, 29 August 1906

Edward P. Mathers was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh and at the Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics. He was a journalist in England until 1878 when he emigrated from England to the British colony of South Africa. There he worked for various newspapers and became the founder-editor of the Natal Advertiser, a newspaper which was published until 1937. The Natal Advertiser publicized the prospects for wealth from gold mining and fully supported British imperialism.^[2] Mathers also wrote guides and handbooks for British migrants.^[3] In the 1880s he travelled throughout the Transvaal gold fields, wrote about them, and became the first journalist to foretell their great future prospects. He returned to England in 1888, founded the weekly newspaper South Africa, and inaugurated annual South African dinners in London.^[1] The newspaper South Africa was published from 1889 to 1961.^[4]

In Durban on 6 August 1885 Mathers married Mary Augusta Powys, a daughter of R. H. Powys who was a cousin of Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford. The marriage produced one son, Edward Powys Mathers, and three daughters.^[1]

Selected publications

• Golden South Africa, or The gold fields revisited. 1888.
• Zambesia, England's El Dorado in Africa. 1895.^[5]

References

1. "Mathers, Edward P." Who's Who: 1667.
2. Derrick, Jonathan (2018). Africa, Empire and Fleet Street: Albert Cartwright and West Africa Magazine. Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780190934637.
3. MacKenzie, John M.; Dalziel, Nigel R. (2013). The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, identity, gender and race, 1772–1914. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781847796899.
4. "South Africa, newspaper published from 1889 to 1961. Founded by and, for many years edited by, Edward P. Mathers". hathitrust.org.
5. Gappah, Petina (14 October 2015). "Petina Gappah's top 10 books about Zimbabwe". The Guardian.