Rita Shell

{{Infobox writer | image = Henrietta Shell Stewart (1863–1950).png | caption = Photo in ''The Sketch'', 1896 | birth_name = Henrietta Shell | birth_date = 1863 | birth_place = England | death_date = 8 November 1950 | death_place = | occupation = Magazine editor | genre = Women | subject =  | movement = | notable_works = ''The Lady'' | spouse =  | partner = Thomas Gibson Bowles | children = 4, including Oliver Stewart }}

'''Rita Shell''' ({{nee}}, '''Henrietta Shell'''; in private life, '''Mrs. John Stewart'''; nickname, '''Tello'''; 1863–1950) was a British magazine editor. She began her journalism career with ''The Princess'', a penny weekly, and in 1895, she was appointed the first woman editor of ''The Lady'', a position she held until her retirement in 1925. Under her leadership, ''The Lady'' focused on practical subjects such as home decoration, household management, and cooking, often featuring legal advice and handling a mass of reader correspondence.

==Career== While serving as the governess to his children, Shell (nickname "Tello")<ref name="Lovell2011">{{cite book |last=Lovell |first=Mary S. |title=The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family |date=13 June 2011 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-07610-3 |page=531 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXSbzanv-8EC&pg=PA531 |access-date=6 September 2024}}</ref> was the mistress of Thomas Gibson Bowles after the death of his wife Jessica Gordon.<ref name="NAM">{{cite web |title=Lieutenant Oliver Stewart |url=https://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/lieutenant-oliver-stewart/ |website=National Army Museum, London |access-date=6 September 2024}}</ref> According to his granddaughter, Julia Budworth, Bowles fathered the last three of Shell's four children. The children were Humphrey (b. 1891), Oliver (b. 1895), and Peter (b. 1900). Shell changed her surname to Stewart.<ref name="Budworth2001">{{cite book |last=Budworth |first=Julia M. |title=Never Forget: George F S Bowles- A Biography. |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-953-99630-8 |pages=616–618}}</ref>

Shell's journalism career commenced with the ''Princess'', a penny weekly for women, where she did a variety of work. It was published by Bowles. In 1894, she assisted the editor of Bowles' magazine ''The Lady''. In January 1895, she became the first woman editor of ''The Lady'',<ref name="Budworth2001" /> serving in that role till 1925, when she retired.<ref name="British1925">{{cite journal |title=Personal |journal=British and Colonial Printer and Stationer: And Newspaper Press |date=26 February 1925 |volume=96 |issue=9 |page=133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XEjAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA133 |access-date=6 September 2024 |publisher=W. J. Stonhill |edition=Public domain |location=London}} </ref> From the time of Shell's appointment, no men served as editor of the publication<ref name="EveStand1998">{{cite news |title=The Lady's new make-up |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard-the-ladys-new-make-up/154780209/ |access-date=6 September 2024 |work=Evening Standard |location=London |via=Newspapers.com |date=4 February 1998 |page=129}} {{open access}}</ref> until Matt Warren was appointed in January 2012.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Turvill |first=William |title=The man who edits The Lady describes taking 130-year-old from 'pantomime dame' to 'serious enterprise' |url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/man-who-edits-lady-describes-taking-130-year-old-pantomime-dame-serious-enterprise/ |url-status=dead |magazine=Press Gazette |location=London |date=16 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320002200/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/man-who-edits-lady-describes-taking-130-year-old-pantomime-dame-serious-enterprise/ |archive-date=20 March 2015}}</ref>

With Shell as its editor, ''The Lady'' took up a very practical side, aiming to help its readers as much as possible. Thus, it devoted considerable space to home decoration, household management and cooking, going into each subject very thoroughly. These features in their turn brought in a mass of correspondence. Shell believed that few ladies' papers had more queries to answer. ''The Lady'' was alone in devoting one column to giving legal advice. She wrote little for the paper itself, except when away for a holiday. But she saw every single item that went in the paper; no item appeared in the paper to which Shell did not give personal attention.<ref name="TheSketch1896">{{cite journal |title=Journals and Journalists of To-Day. The "Lady" and Miss Rita Shell. |journal=The Sketch |location=London |volume=16 |via=HathiTrust |date=4 November 1896 |page=46 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951002800412i&seq=5 |edition=Public domain |access-date=6 September 2024}}</ref>

She was also involved with the Society of Women Journalists, serving as its vice-president.<ref name="TheDailyTele1950">{{cite news |title=Miss Rita Shell |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-miss-rita-shell/154779075/ |access-date=6 September 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |via=Newspapers.com |date=10 November 1950 |page=11}} {{open access}}</ref><ref name="Meredith1928">{{cite book |last=Meredith |first=Mark |title=Who's who in Literature |date=1928 |edition=Public domain |publisher=Literary Year Books Press |page=469 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2IciAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA469 |access-date=6 September 2024}}</ref>

==Death== Shell died in England on 8 November 1950, at the age of 87.<ref name="TheDailyTelegraph1950">{{cite news |title=Stewart |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-stewart/154773354/ |access-date=6 September 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |via=Newspapers.com |date=10 November 1950 |page=16}} {{open access}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [https://heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk/records/P143/11/C3 Correspondence with grandmothers (Rita Shell and Adrienne Le Lay), 1939-1963] via heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shell, Rita}} Category:1863 births Category:1950 deaths Category:British magazine editors Category:British women magazine editors