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Image Not Available for Frank Lewis Dowling
Frank Lewis Dowling
Image Not Available for Frank Lewis Dowling

Frank Lewis Dowling

probably London, 1823 - 1867
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Biographyno LCNAF record
Dowling, Frank Lewis (1823–1867), newspaper editor, son of the journalist Vincent George Dowling (1785–1852), was born, most probably in London, on 18 October 1823, and called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 24 November 1848. He became editor of Bell's Life the leading sporting newspaper of its time, on the illness of his father in 1851. He married, on 29 October 1853, Frances Harriet, fourth daughter of Benjamin Humphrey Smart, of 55 Connaught Terrace, Hyde Park, London.

Dowling was remarkable for his urbanity, and for the fair manner in which he discharged the duties of arbiter and umpire in numerous cases of disputes connected with the prize-ring. He had the control of the arrangements of the international fight between Tom Sayers and the American John Camel Heenan held at Farnborough, Hampshire, on 17 April 1860, and it was by his advice that the combatants agreed to consider it a drawn battle, and to receive a belt each. He was also widely trusted by competitive pedestrians and Bell's Life was holding £15,000 annually in stake money at the end of his career. He died from consumption at 4 Norfolk Street, the Strand, London, on 10 October 1867. He was survived by a widow, Isabel Dowling, presumably after a second marriage. Dowling also edited and brought out the annual issues of Fistiana, or, The Oracle of the Ring from 1852 to 1864, besides preparing a further edition which did not appear until the year after his death.

G. C. Boase, rev. Dennis Brailsford
Sources

GM, 4th ser., 4 (1867), 690 · Bell's Life in London (1852–64) · Illustrated Sporting and Theatrical News (19 Oct 1867), 657
Likenesses

portrait, repro. in Illustrated Sporting and Theatrical News
Wealth at death

under £3000: probate, 31 Oct 1867, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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G. C. Boase, ‘Dowling, Frank Lewis (1823–1867)’, rev. Dennis Brailsford, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/7966, accessed 17 Oct 2017]

Frank Lewis Dowling (1823–1867): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7966
Person TypeIndividual
Last Updated8/7/24