Samuel Storey (Liberal politician)

British politician

Samuel Storey (1841–1925) was a British politician born in County Durham. He became a Member of Parliament for Sunderland and the main founder of the Sunderland Echo newspaper.

Samuel Storey was born in Sherburn, near Durham, on 13 January 1841. He was the sixth son of County Durham farmer Robert Storey. When Robert died in 1843, his mother moved to Newcastle, where Samuel Storey was educated at St Andrew’s School. He became a pupil teacher there when he was 13 and then attended Durham Diocesan Training College from 1858 to 1859. After leaving college, Storey worked as a master at Birtley Church of England School from 1860 to 1864. However, when his mother moved from Newcastle to Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, in around 1858, he became increasingly involved in events in the town, helping to establish Sunderland Working Men's Club in 1863. Storey founded the paper to fill a gap in both the newspaper and political markets. He promised readers in the first edition that, if things went wrong, the "Echo would try its best to put them right". But he added: "Always with moderation and without esteeming all those who oppose us as fools and knaves." Early copies of the Echo also included lengthy reports of Liberal meetings, and critical articles on Liberal opponents. The Sunderland Echo was launched with an initial investment of £3,500, raised by donations of £500 each from Storey and his business partners. Those joining the venture were: Quaker banker Edward Backhouse, shipbroker and MP Edward Temperley Gourley, shipbuilder and MP Charles Palmer, newspaper editor Richard Ruddock, rope maker Thomas Glaholm and draper Thomas Scott Turnbull. Only Ruddock, however, had any knowledge of newspapers and the money was quickly used up. A further £7,000 in investment enabled the remaining partners to abandon the "wheezing flat bed press" and, in July 1876, the Echo was moved to a new premises at 14 Bridge Street, Sunderland. Bridge Street was to remain the home of the Echo for the next 100 years and, in 1923, Storey paid a visit to mark the paper's 50th anniversary. He died two years later. Besides the Sunderland Echo, Storey started the Tyneside Daily Echo in Gateshead in 1879, which was moved to Newcastle in 1880 and discontinued in 1888. But it was a partnership with Andrew Carnegie, from 1882 to 1885, which saw his newspaper business take off. The pair started several new papers and bought up many existing ones. Their chain included the Wolverhampton Express and Wolverhampton Star, which were amalgamated as the Express and Star by the syndicate in 1884. Other papers in their stable were the Hampshire Telegraph, Portsmouth Evening News, The Echo in London and the North Eastern Daily and Weekly Gazettes at Middlesbrough. Two papers which the syndicate tried but failed to buy were the Shields Gazette and the Northern Echo. One of its last purchases was the Northern Daily Mail, in Hartlepool. When the syndicate broke up in 1885, Storey retained the Northern Daily Mail, the Hampshire Telegraph, the Portsmouth Evening News, and his own Sunderland and Tyneside Echoes. These papers were to become the basis of his new business idea, Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers.

Samuel Storey died in 1925, aged 84, several months after the death of his eldest son, Frederick George Storey. The chairmanship of his company passed to his grandson, Samuel (the elder son of Frederick Storey), who carried on with his grandfather's political activities too, joining Sunderland Brough Council in 1928 and being elected as the town's MP in the same year, holding this position until 1945.