Talbot Baines Reed

Talbot Baines Reed was an English writer of boys’ fiction. He established a genre of school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic’s. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy’s Own Paper.

About Talbot Baines Reed in brief

Talbot Baines Reed was an English writer of boys’ fiction. He established a genre of school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic’s. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy’s Own Paper. His father, Charles Reed, was a successful London printer who later became a Member of Parliament. Reed’s affinity with boys, his instinctive understanding of their standpoint in life and his gift for creating believable characters, ensured that his popularity survived through several generations. The Reeds were descended from John Reed, a colonel in Oliver Cromwell’s army during the English Civil War. The family was based in Maiden Newton in the county of Dorset before moving to London at the end of the 18th century and settling in Hackney, London. The third son of Charles and Margaret Reed, Talbot was born at the family home, Earlsmead, on 3 April 1852. He grew up in a happy household, dominated by his religious zeal and his belief that hardy outdoor sports were the best means for bringing up boys. His eldest brother, Charles, had been captain of the junior cricket and football teams at City of London School, Clapton, and was a leading figure in its football and cricket teams. He also became a prominent typefounder, and wrote a standard work on the subject: History of the Old English Letter Foundries. After struggling with illness for most of 1893, Reed died in November that year, at the age of 41.

Tributes honoured him both for his contribution to children’s fiction and for his work as the definitive historian of English typefounding. He was also a co-founder and first honorary secretary of the Bibliographical Society, and a trustee for his family’s charities. He had a family of five sons, the third of whom, named Talbot. Baines after his distinguished uncle, was born in 1861, and died in 1893, aged 41. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and their three children, all of whom are now in their late 80s and 90s, and his daughter, Anne, who is married to the former Prime Minister, David Cameron. The couple had a son, Charles Baines, who died in 1998, and a daughter-in-law, Anne Baines-Reed, who was married to Sir Edward Baines in 2007, and who is now a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Psychiatrists, London, and the Director of the London School of Music, London and the University of St Andrews, Glasgow. The children were all born in 1852, and Talbot’s eldest brother Charles had been a junior cricket captain and football team captain at the City of. London School. He died in 1881, following the death of his father, and became head of the company. By then he had begun his monumental history which was published in 1887. Along with his B. O. P. contributions Reed wrote regular articles and book reviews for his cousin Edward Bains’s newspaper, the Leeds Mercury.

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