William Francis Casey
Encyclopedia
William Francis Casey was a journalist and editor of The Times
He was born in Cape Town
, the son of Patrick Joseph Casey, theatre proprietor, of Glenageary
, and was educated at Castleknock College
and Trinity College, Dublin
.
He spent two years reading medicine before turning to law. He was called to the Irish bar in 1909. But again he was undecided on his career. He described his period in the law as ‘one year, one brief, one guinea’. His thoughts had been drawn instead towards the theatre and, while reading for the bar, he became interested in the work of the Abbey Theatre when the directors included W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. He worked for a time on the business side, and then in 1908 two of his plays, The Suburban Groove and The Man who Missed the Tide, were produced at the Abbey and with their success he decided to try his luck in London. He took with him a letter to Bruce Richmond, editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Richmond saw the young writer's promise and it was agreed that Casey should review for the supplement. In 1914 he married Amy Gertrude Pearson-Gee, a widow, and sister-in-law of Karl Pearson
. They had no children.
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Casey was offered a post as a sub-editor in the sporting department of The Times and from then until his retirement he was a permanent member of that paper's staff. He then served as a foreign sub-editor, with his interest and skill leading to a posting to Washington in 1919, then to Paris in the following year. He returned to London in 1923 as chief foreign sub-editor, regarded as one of the most arduous and anxious positions on the paper. He held this post until 1928. He was part of the group of proprietors and editorial staff who attempted to produce the paper during the general strike of 1926. Afterwards a souvenir volume, Strike Nights in Printing House Square
, was printed for private record. One of its pictures bore the caption ‘Amateurs in the foundry’ and showed Casey and Captain Shaw, the chairman's secretary, hard at work on a mechanical process, as ‘the champion pair of matrix moulders’.
In 1928 Casey joined the Times's foreign leader-writing staff. He attended many of the Geneva sessions of the League of Nations
. In the 1930s his concern grew as to German aspirations in Europe. He was known within the senior ranks as a francophile, but within The Times of that period he ‘knew that his judgement on foreign matters carried little weight’.
He was one of the senior journalists who gathered in 1936 in the office of the paper's deputy editor, Robert M'Gowan Barrington-Ward
— a strong supporter of appeasement with Hitler, as was the editor, Geoffrey Dawson
— to demand the paper take a stronger line to ‘stand up to Hitler’ . They were ignored. But on Dawson's retirement in 1941, the new editor, Barrington-Ward, appointed Casey his deputy; the selection was welcomed by the staff, partly because of his greatly more relaxed style. He was a member of many clubs and he would declare that, if he could squeeze in a game of billiards in his dinner break, work went much more easily on his return. Iverach McDonald described him as ‘never over-eager to work’.
Barrington-Ward's premature death in 1948 threw the burden of editorship on to Casey's shoulders sooner than expected: he himself had never wished to be editor. Only a few months before he had agreed with Barrington-Ward that he ‘should very soon retire’. Stephen Koss says it was ‘clearly a stopgap appointment’. John Pringle, on The Times staff, said of Casey's editorship that ‘as time went on, he found it harder to face the detailed administrative work and constant decisions … [his deputy, Donald] Tyerman … often had to get the paper out for days on end without much guidance from the editor’. Yet his willingness to listen to staff and the fact that, unusually for an editor, he ‘seemed to have all the time in the world’, made him a popular figure among the journalists under him.
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
He was born in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, the son of Patrick Joseph Casey, theatre proprietor, of Glenageary
Glenageary
Glenageary is an area in the suburbs of south County Dublin, Ireland, part of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County.While there is no officially defined boundary, it is surrounded by the areas of Sallynoggin, Dalkey, Dun Laoghaire, Glasthule and Johnstown...
, and was educated at Castleknock College
Castleknock College
Castleknock College is a private , secondary school for boys aged between 13 and 18, which is situated in the residential suburb of Castleknock, 8 km west of the city centre in Dublin, Ireland.-History:...
and Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
.
He spent two years reading medicine before turning to law. He was called to the Irish bar in 1909. But again he was undecided on his career. He described his period in the law as ‘one year, one brief, one guinea’. His thoughts had been drawn instead towards the theatre and, while reading for the bar, he became interested in the work of the Abbey Theatre when the directors included W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. He worked for a time on the business side, and then in 1908 two of his plays, The Suburban Groove and The Man who Missed the Tide, were produced at the Abbey and with their success he decided to try his luck in London. He took with him a letter to Bruce Richmond, editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Richmond saw the young writer's promise and it was agreed that Casey should review for the supplement. In 1914 he married Amy Gertrude Pearson-Gee, a widow, and sister-in-law of Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
. They had no children.
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Casey was offered a post as a sub-editor in the sporting department of The Times and from then until his retirement he was a permanent member of that paper's staff. He then served as a foreign sub-editor, with his interest and skill leading to a posting to Washington in 1919, then to Paris in the following year. He returned to London in 1923 as chief foreign sub-editor, regarded as one of the most arduous and anxious positions on the paper. He held this post until 1928. He was part of the group of proprietors and editorial staff who attempted to produce the paper during the general strike of 1926. Afterwards a souvenir volume, Strike Nights in Printing House Square
Printing House Square
Printing House Square is a London court, so called from the former office of the King's Printer which occupied the site. For many years, the office of The Times stood on the site, until it relocated to Gray's Inn Road and later to Wapping....
, was printed for private record. One of its pictures bore the caption ‘Amateurs in the foundry’ and showed Casey and Captain Shaw, the chairman's secretary, hard at work on a mechanical process, as ‘the champion pair of matrix moulders’.
In 1928 Casey joined the Times's foreign leader-writing staff. He attended many of the Geneva sessions of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. In the 1930s his concern grew as to German aspirations in Europe. He was known within the senior ranks as a francophile, but within The Times of that period he ‘knew that his judgement on foreign matters carried little weight’.
He was one of the senior journalists who gathered in 1936 in the office of the paper's deputy editor, Robert M'Gowan Barrington-Ward
Robert M'Gowan Barrington-Ward
Robert McGowan Barrington-Ward DSO MC was an English barrister and journalist who was editor of The Times from 1941 until 1948.-Family and early life:...
— a strong supporter of appeasement with Hitler, as was the editor, Geoffrey Dawson
Geoffrey Dawson
George Geoffrey Dawson was editor of The Times from 1912 to 1919 and again from 1923 until 1941. His original last name was Robinson, but he changed it in 1917.-Early life:...
— to demand the paper take a stronger line to ‘stand up to Hitler’ . They were ignored. But on Dawson's retirement in 1941, the new editor, Barrington-Ward, appointed Casey his deputy; the selection was welcomed by the staff, partly because of his greatly more relaxed style. He was a member of many clubs and he would declare that, if he could squeeze in a game of billiards in his dinner break, work went much more easily on his return. Iverach McDonald described him as ‘never over-eager to work’.
Barrington-Ward's premature death in 1948 threw the burden of editorship on to Casey's shoulders sooner than expected: he himself had never wished to be editor. Only a few months before he had agreed with Barrington-Ward that he ‘should very soon retire’. Stephen Koss says it was ‘clearly a stopgap appointment’. John Pringle, on The Times staff, said of Casey's editorship that ‘as time went on, he found it harder to face the detailed administrative work and constant decisions … [his deputy, Donald] Tyerman … often had to get the paper out for days on end without much guidance from the editor’. Yet his willingness to listen to staff and the fact that, unusually for an editor, he ‘seemed to have all the time in the world’, made him a popular figure among the journalists under him.