{{Short description|British journalist and historian}} {{for|the Welsh footballer|Dennis Griffiths (footballer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Dennis Griffiths''' (8 December 1933 – 24 December 2015) was a British journalist and historian, regarded as the founding father of newspaper history from the earliest days of Fleet Street.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|last1=Greenslade|first1=Roy|title=Dennis Griffiths, a prolific and punctilious newspaper historian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/dec/30/dennis-griffiths-a-prolific-and-punctilious-newspaper-historian|accessdate=2 January 2016|work=The Guardian|date=30 December 2015}}</ref> His ''Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992'' has become a standard work of reference for the whole industry. Born in Swansea, the son of a compositor, he trained as a printer himself, rose to become the production chief of the London ''Evening Standard'' for 18 years and wrote six books, including a definitive history of that newspaper from its launch in 1827,<ref>Griffiths, Dennis (1995). ''Plant Here The Standard''. Palgrave Macmillan, 417pp. {{ISBN|0-333-55565-1}}.</ref> much praised in the foreword by its former owner the late Vere Harmsworth.
From 1999 to 2002 Griffiths was an energetic chairman of the London Press Club.<ref>[http://londonpressclub.co.uk/2015/12/29/former-lpc-chair-dennis-griffiths-dies/ "Tributes paid to former London Press Club chairman Dennis Griffiths"]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}. ''London Press Club website'', 29 December 2015.</ref> In March 2002, he helped organise the 300th anniversary celebration for the first regular daily newspaper to be printed in the United Kingdom. The Prince of Wales unveiled a brass plaque at a service in St Bride’s, the journalists’ church, on the date ''The Daily Courant'' was first published in Fleet Street.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dennis-griffiths-former-chairman-of-london-press-club-and-evening-standard-history-writer-dies-a6790426.html "Evening Standard history writer dies"]. ''The Independent'', 30 December 2015.</ref>
In 2006 the British Library published his book ''Fleet Street – Five Hundred Years of the Press'' to coincide with an exhibition of newspaper front pages which he co-curated. He also helped prepare an oral archive of newspaper history, and that year was himself interviewed by National Life Stories (C638/06) for the 'Oral History of the British Press' collection held by the library.<ref name=oralhistory>[http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Press-and-media/021M-C0638X0006XX-0001V0 National Life Stories, 'Griffiths, Dennis (1 of 6) National Life Stories Collection: 'Oral History of the British Press', The British Library Board, 2006]. Retrieved 28 October 2017.</ref> In 2013 he founded the Coranto Press which published scholarly works on the media.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12077327/Dennis-Griffiths-newspaper-historian-obituary.html "Staunch newspaperman who devoted his later years to studying the history of Fleet Street"]. ''The Telegraph'', 1 January 2016.</ref>
Griffiths often retold the story of how in 1969 the ''Evening Standard'' pre-printed front pages showing a facsimile colour picture of Neil Armstrong being the first man to step onto the moon – 24 hours ahead of actually landing.<ref>[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/former-chairman-of-london-press-club-and-evening-standard-historian-dies-a3145911.html "Former chairman of London Press Club dies"]. ''London Evening Standard'', 30 December 2015.</ref>
==Publications== * ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992. {{ISBN|0-333-52984-7}}. * ''Fleet Street – Five Hundred Years of the Press'', British Library Publishing, 2006. ASIN: B00EKYHS2U.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Dennis}} Category:1933 births Category:2015 deaths Category:British historians Category:British journalists