Lilias Margaret Frances, Countess Bathurst

The Countess Bathurst
Born
Lilias Margaret Frances Borthwick

12 October 1871
London, England
Died30 December 1965(1965-12-30) (aged 94)
Known forOwning The Morning Post
Political partyConservative
Spouse
(m. 1893; died 1943)
Children4 (including Allen Bathurst, Lord Apsley)
Parent(s)Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk
Alice Beatrice Lister

Lilias Margaret Frances, Countess Bathurst (née Borthwick, 12 October 1871 – 30 December 1965) was a British newspaper publisher who owned The Morning Post. Her father, Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk, owned the paper and passed control to her upon his death in 1908. She led the paper as the only female owner of a major newspaper in the world, reorienting it to focus on political and diplomatic affairs. Lady Bathurst herself was an anti-feminist, supporting movements against women's suffrage.

The paper continued to be successful and respected under her ownership; it was considered an organ of the Conservative Party and contributed to the fall of Arthur Balfour and David Lloyd George from power. Under her ownership, the paper was also known for its far-right stance, which largely reflected her own views, including expressing opinions that were anti-semitic, imperialist, and militaristic. Lord Northcliffe, one of Lady Bathurst's competitors and the owner of The Times, wrote that she was "the most powerful woman in England, without exception other than royalty".[1] She sold the paper in 1924 and lived in relative obscurity before dying in 1965 at the age of 94.

  1. ^ Hoffman 1922, p. 756.