Edwin Rainbow, my great, great grandfather, was a newspaper employee who definitely didn’t hack into mobile phones! Born 1851 in Coventry, England he served an apprenticeship as a printer before becoming a journalist, employed by several Coventry newspapers.
I discovered that during the first decade of the twentieth century he developed a passion for Bohemia (nowadays part of the Czech Republic). In between journalism and his duties as Registrar of Births and Deaths in Coventry he made frequent visits to Prague, financing his trips by writing travel and political articles for both local and national newspapers, including, I believe, The Manchester Guardian. His obituary relates that he was awarded a medal and Freedom of the City of Prague for his journalistic services, apparently helping to improve the image of Bohemia when it was receiving bad press at the time, particularly from Germany.
I have been aware that he had written several books, a tour guide of Coventry and both the official souvenir guides of Queen Victoria’s Silver and Golden Jubilees. Recently I discovered that in 1906 he co-authored a book with Jindérich Malây, about the life of Vojta Náprstek – Vojta Náprstek: A Memoir. Náprstek was a philanthropist, patriot and politician, as well as a pioneering Czech language journalist in the United States.
I have very little additional information about Edwin’s time in Prague except that he became friends with a man called Mr Musek who visited him in Coventry on several occasions. I would love to find more out about his trips and articles and have a feeling this will be my next ‘dog with a bone’ foray.