The London Gazette , facsimile front page from 3–10 September 1666, reporting on the
Great Fire of London. (Click image to enlarge and read).
The
London Gazette is one of the official
journals of record of the
British government, and the most important among such official journals in the UK, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. The
London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving
English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the
United Kingdom, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as the
Oxford Gazette.
This is also claimed by the
Stamford Mercury and the Newcastle
Journal, due to that fact that the Gazette is not a conventional newspaper offering general news coverage. It does not have a large circulation.
Other official newspapers of the UK government are the
Edinburgh and
Belfast Gazettes, which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in the
London Gazette, also contain publications specific to
Scotland and
Northern Ireland, respectively.
In turn, the
London Gazette not only carries notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in
England. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to
Scotland or
Northern Ireland are also required to be published in the
London Gazette.
Today
The
London Gazette is published each weekday, except for
Bank Holidays. Notices for the following, among others, are published:
- Commissions in the Armed Forces and subsequent promotion of officers
Her Majesty's Stationery Office has digitised all issues which are available online.
The official Gazettes are published by
The Stationery Office.
History
The
London Gazette was first published as the
Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665.
Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to
Oxford to escape the
Great Plague of London, and
courtiers were unwilling to touch, let alone read, London newspapers for fear of contagion. The
Gazette was "Published by Authority" by
Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by
Samuel Pepys in his
diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the
Gazette moved too, with the first issue of the
London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on 5 February 1666.
The
Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public.
In 1812 an officer of the
London Gazette named
George Reynell established the first
advertising agency.
Her Majesty's Stationery Office took over the publication of the
Gazette in 1889. Publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision, in the 1990s when the bulk of HMSO was sold and renamed simply
The Stationery Office.
Traditions
- In time of war, dispatches from the various conflicts are published in the London Gazette. People referred to are said to have been mentioned in despatches. When members of the armed forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here, the person is said to have been “gazetted”.
- Being "gazetted" (or "in the gazette") sometimes also meant having official notice of one's bankruptcy published, as in the classic ten-line poem comparing the stolid yeomen of 1722 to the lavishly spending faux-genteel farmers of 1822
Man to the plough;
Wife to the cow;
Girl to the yarn;
Boy to the barn;
And your rent will be netted.
Man tally-ho;
Miss piano;
Wife silk and satin;
Boy Greek and Latin;
And you'll all be Gazetted.
The phrase "gazetted fortune hunter" is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage also used to be published in the
Gazette.
Colonial Gazettes
There are equivalent Government Gazettes for the following current/former
colonies or
protectorates. They are available at the
National Archives.
See also
- OpenPSI for the which provides RDF and SPARQL end point of Gazette notice data
