{{Short description|British journalist, biographer, local historian, businessman and politician}} {{infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Richard Welford | honorific_suffix = | image =Richard Wellford (1836-1919).png | birth_date = 1836 | birth_place = Holloway, London, England | death_date = 1919 | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|biographer|historian|Businessman|Politician }} | education = | alma_mater = | genre = History | subject = Newcastle upon Tyne }} '''Richard Welford''' (1836–1919) was a British journalist, biographer, local historian, businessman and politician associated with Newcastle upon Tyne in the 19th century. He was the author of a number of well-known works of history of the area and of its leading citizens.
==Biography== Richard Welford was born in Holloway, London in 1836. He worked in Aylesbury as a reporter for the Bucks Advertiser, before moving to Newcastle in 1854 to work for the Newcastle Chronicle. He was appointed its sub-editor in 1858, a position he held for three years before resigning in 1861 to become a freelance writer. In concert with his writing, he took up, by 1871, a position as secretary of a local shipping company, rising to become managing director of the Tyne Steam Shipping Company. He was active in local politics, serving on the South Gosforth Local Board and acting as a magistrate.<ref name="DH">{{cite web |title=Richard Welford – Discovering Heritage – House Histories |url=https://discoveringheritage.com/richard-welford/ |website=discoveringheritage.com |access-date=24 August 2023 |date=15 June 2019}}</ref>
Welford acted as president of the short-lived Northumbrian Small Pipes Society from 1893 to 1900. He inherited J. W. Fenwick's library of documents and manuscript music for the Northumbrian smallpipes upon Fenwick's death in 1907.<ref>{{cite web |title=J W Fenwick and his Collection – Northumberland Small-Piping in North Shields |url=http://northshieldsnsp.co.uk/the-j-w-fenwick-collection-of-northumberland-small-pipe-music/ |website=northshieldsnsp.co.uk |access-date=24 August 2023}}</ref>
The Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company named a passenger cargo ship commissioned by them from Palmers' Shipbuilding & Iron Co Ltd and launched 6 November 1907, completed February 1908 as ''Richard Welford''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard Welford 1908 |url=http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/R-Ships/richardwelford1908.html |website=Tyne Built Ships.co.uk |access-date=24 August 2023}}</ref>
Welford died in 1919. A bust of Welford is displayed in the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard Welford (1836–1919) {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/richard-welford-18361919-259750 |website=artuk.org |access-date=24 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
==Works== He was the author of: *''A History of the Parish of Gosforth'' (1879)<ref name="DH"/> *''St Nicholas Church and its monuments'' (1880)<ref name="DH"/> *''Pictures of Tyneside Sixty Years Ago'' (1881)<ref name="aabi">{{cite web |title=We – New General Catalog of Old Books & Authors |url=http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/we.htm |website=www.authorandbookinfo.com |access-date=24 August 2023}}</ref> – a reprint from original plates of ''Pictures of Tyneside Sixty Years Ago'' by James Wilson Carmichael<ref>{{cite web |last1=Trust |first1=National |title=Pictures of Tyneside Sixty Years Ago 581492 |url=https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/581492 |website=www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk |access-date=24 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref> *''History of Newcastle and Gateshead'' - written in celebration of the town's elevation to city status in 1882<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard Welford - History of Newcastle and Gateshead. Volume 1, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries / edited by Richard Welford. |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/1079532/history-of-newcastle-and-gateshead-volume-1-fourteenth-and-fifteenth-centuries |website=Royal Collection Trust |access-date=24 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref> **[https://archive.org/details/historyofnewcast01welf/page/n3/mode/2up Volume I – 14th and 15th centuries] (1884) **[https://archive.org/details/historyofnewcast02welf/page/n3/mode/2up Volume II – 16th century] (1885) **[https://archive.org/details/historyofnewcast03welf/page/n3/mode/2up Volume III – 16th and 17th centuries] (1887) *''Men of Mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed'' (1895) **[https://archive.org/details/menofmarktwixtty01welf/page/n7/mode/2up Volume 1] **[https://archive.org/details/menofmarktwixtty02welf/page/n5/mode/2up Volume II] **[https://archive.org/details/menofmarktwixtty03welf/page/n5/mode/2up Volume III] *[https://archive.org/details/cu31924031473857/page/n5/mode/2up Early printing in Newcastle-upon-Tyne] (1895) *[https://archive.org/details/recordsofcommitt00grea/page/n7/mode/2up Records of the Committees for compounding, etc., with delinquent royalists in Durham and Northumberland during the civil war, etc., 1643–1660] (1905) *''Newcastle Typography and Bibliography, from 1639 to 1800'' (date unknown)<ref name="aabi"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/personDetails.xhtml?personId=46186 Articles and chapters by Richard Welford], principally in the ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne'', on Archaeology Data Service
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Welford, Richard}} Category:1836 births Category:1919 deaths Category:19th-century British journalists Category:19th-century British male journalists Category:19th-century English male writers Category:19th-century English biographers Category:19th-century English businesspeople Category:English male non-fiction writers