The First Lady of Fleet Street; The Life of Rachel Beer, Crusading Heiress and Newspaper Pioneer by Eilat Negev & Yehuda Koren, Random House 2011.
By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO — As unlikely as it may seem, for approximately ten years at the end of the 1800’s, two of the foremost British newspapers, the Sunday Times and the Observer, were not only owned but also edited by a woman.
Rachel Sassoon was born in Bombay in April 1858, into one of the world’s wealthiest families; the Sassoons were known as the Rothschilds of the East. She met Frederick Arthur Beer, son of the financier Julius Beer. The Beer family had left behind their Jewish orthodoxy and origins in the ghetto of Frankfurt, moved to the UK and converted to English Anglicism.
When Rachel Sassoon and Frederick Beer were married in a church she was ostracized by her family. She and Frederick were part of the social circle around the Prince of Wales in Victorian and post-Victorian England.
The Beers were the editors and owners of two of the most important newspapers in the country; she owned the Sunday Times and he owned the Observer. When illness prevented Frederick from fulfilling his duties, Rachel took over and edited both newspapers. She was interested not only in the world news of the day, but was also heavily involved with the many abysmal social conditions she saw around her.
In addition, she became interested in the case against Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer in France who was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island. It was she who ferreted out Count Esterhazy who had forged the letter which wrongly convicted Dreyfus.
The death of her husband, Frederick, left deep scars. At that time, it took only two physicians (neither of whom had to be a specialist) to declare that a person was insane. Because of her continued mourning for her husband which left her unable and/or unwilling to engage in life’s activities, she was declared insane and spent the rest of her life under nursing care.
This is an interesting biography not only of a brilliant woman but also of the time in which she lived.
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Orysiek is a freelance writer who specializes in arts and literature. Comments may be made in the space provided below this article or sent to the author at sheila.orysiek@sdjewishworld.com