Name Oswald Frederick Role Journalist | Died 1909 | |
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Books Round the Calendar in Portugal, Travels in Portugal | ||
Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd CMG (1834–1909) was an English journalist, man of letters, and diplomat who served over 24 years as British consul in Oporto, Portugal.
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Career
He was born at Wilton Crescent, London, on 18 March 1834. He was the son of John Crawfurd, diplomat, and Horatia Ann. He was educated at Eton, he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, in 1854, but left the university without a degree.
He became a clerk in the Foreign Office and was subsequently promoted to be H.M.'s consul at Oporto, serving there from 1867 to 1891. After his retirement from consular service in 1891, Crawfurd become editor and director of Black and White, managing director of Chapman & Hall, and editor of Chapman's Magazine of Fiction from 1895 to 1898. He wrote 13 novels (of minor reputation) and contributed articles to the Fortnightly Review, Cornhill Magazine, Nineteenth Century, and the New Review. In 1873 Crawfurd founded the New Quarterly Magazine, which he sold to Francis Hueffer in 1877. He was awarded a CMG in the 1890 New Year Honours.
Family
Oswald Crawfurd was the son of John Crawfurd, who played an important role in the founding of Singapore. Oswald's first marriage was to Margaret 'Meta' Ford, the daughter of the writer Richard Ford. After her death in 1899, he married in 1902 Lita Browne, daughter of Hermann von Flesch Brunnigen.