14 Facts About Mark Lemon

Mark Lemon was the founding editor of both Punch and The Field.

Mark Lemon was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis.

Mark Lemon's parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, Westminster.

Mark Lemon's father died in Hendon in 1818, and between 1817 and 1823 Lemon lived at Church Farmhouse, where a blue plaque commemorates him.

At the age of 15, Mark Lemon was sent to live in Boston, Lincolnshire, with his mother's brother Thomas Collis.

Mark Lemon had a natural talent for journalism and the stage, and at 26 retired from less congenial business to devote himself to the writing of plays.

The paper was for some time unsuccessful, Mark Lemon keeping it alive out of the profits of his plays.

Two other long-running magazines in which Mark Lemon played a significant part were the Illustrated London News, the first publication to make use of pictures as well as text in reporting, which was founded by his friend Herbert Ingram, and The Field, of which he was founder editor.

Mark Lemon was an actor of ability, a pleasing lecturer and a successful impersonator of Shakespearian characters.

Mark Lemon played in the 1851 production of Not So Bad As We Seem, a play written by Edward Bulwer featuring many notable Victorians, including Charles Dickens.

Mark Lemon wrote novelettes and lyrics, over a hundred songs, a few three-volume novels, several Christmas fairy tales and a volume of jests.

Mark Lemon was a stalwart of the London gentlemen's Savage Club.

Mark Lemon died in his adopted home town Crawley, West Sussex on 23 May 1870 and was buried in St Margaret's Church, Ifield.

Mark Lemon's daughter, Mary Mark-Lemon, was a successful songwriter, noted for "Daddy", with music by Arthur Henry Behrend.