Bernard Keble Sandwell

Canadian editor and essayist

Bernard Keble Sandwell, or BK as he was more commonly known, (December 6, 1876 – December 7, 1954) was a Canadian author, and a magazine and newspaper editor, best known as the editor of Saturday Night (1932 1951).

Sandwell was born in Ipswich, England, to George Henry Sandwell, a congregationalist minister and Emily Johnson. He traveled to Canada where his father was posted, and attended Upper Canada College. He remained in Canada when his father's mission ended, and attended the University of Toronto from 1893 to 1897, where he gained a BA in Classics.

On leaving university, Sandwell joined the staff at The Evening News in Toronto. He moved to Montreal in 1904 to write a drama column for the Montreal Herald. He joined the Montreal Financial Times in 1911 as an associate editor and remained there until 1919, when he joined Stephen Leacock at McGill University as an assistant professor of economics. He made several speeches to the Empire Club of Canada throughout his career. He also wrote several books and was a frequent contributor to the Reader's Digest. Returning to Toronto in 1931, Sandwell became the editor of Saturday Night in 1932, and made the magazine the mouthpiece of Canadian Liberalism until his retirement from the journal in 1951. A man with a prolific output, Sandwell in his later years appeared to increase his work rate. In 1944, he was appointed rector of Queen's University and in the same year he was appointed Governor of the CBC, a post held until 1947.

Sandwell died in 1954 of lung cancer, and was survived by his wife Marion Street Sandwell and a sister, Vera. His younger brother Captain Arnold Sandwell flew with the RNAS in World War I and served with the Royal Canadian Airforce until his death in 1940.