Rudolph Chambers Lehmann (3 January 1856 – 22 January 1929) was an English writer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910. As a writer he was best known for three decades in which he was a major contributor to Punch as well as founding editor of Granta magazine.
Life and career
Lehmann was born in Ecclesall near Sheffield. His father was Augustus Frederick Lehmann, a merchant and steel manufacturer whose brothers Henri and Rudolf were both noted academic artists. His mother, Nina Chambers, was the daughter of the Scottish author and naturalist Robert Chambers. Their social circle included Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Lord Leighton and other prominent figures.
Lehmann attended Highgate School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was president of the Cambridge Union Society in 1876. He was also a rower, and captained the First Trinity Boat Club, although in the trial eights for two years, he did not quite make the Cambridge eight. At Henley Royal Regatta he finished last in every heat he entered, from the 1877 Visitors’ to the 1888 Wyfolds.
Lehmann was admitted at the Inner Temple on 6 November 1875 and called to the bar on 21 April 1880. He served on the South Eastern Circuit. and was the main contributor to Rowing (1898) in The Isthmian Library series.
Lehmann also wrote verse, mostly light and was described as the "Poet Laureate of Rowing". He tried his hand as a lyricist in such works as His Majesty, a comic opera in the Gilbert and Sullivan vein, with music by Alexander Mackenzie, a libretto by F. C. Burnand and additional lyrics by Adrian Ross, presented at the Savoy Theatre in 1897. He was appointed as editor of the Daily News in 1901 following the resignation of Sir John Richard Robinson.