Thomas Gibson Bowles

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Thomas Gibson Bowles (January 15, 1841 — January 12, 1922), the founder of the magazines The Lady and the English Vanity Fair, and the maternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters.

He was the illegitimate offspring of Thomas Milner Gibson and a servant girl named Susannah. He attended the University of London for a year. His father gave him a yearly stipend of £90 and helped him find a job at Somerset House.

He began his journalism and publishing career by writing a column for the Morning Post in 1866. He then borrowed £200 to found Vanity Fair in 1868. Shattered by the death of his wife Jessica in childbirth, he sold his stake in Vanity Fair to Arthur H. Evans in 1877 for £20,000. He founded The Lady in 1885, supposedly spurred by advice Jessica had once given to him.

At the 1892 general election, he was elected as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for King's Lynn and served in the House of Commons until losing his seat at the 1906 election. He was re-elected at the January 1910 as a Liberal, but lost his seat again at the December 1910 election.

He died while on a holiday at Algeciras, Spain, and is buried in Gibraltar.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alexander Weston Jarvis	Member of Parliament for King's Lynn 1892–1906	Succeeded by Carlyon Bellairs
Preceded by Carlyon Bellairs	Member of Parliament for King's Lynn January 1910–December 1910	Succeeded by Holcombe Ingleby