Mark Lemon

Mark Lemon (30 November 1809, in London – 23 May 1870, in Crawley) was the founding editor of both Punch and The Field. He was also a writer of plays and verses.

Biography

Lemon was born in Marylebone, Westminster, Middlesex, on 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, Westminster. His father died in Hendon in 1818, and between 1817 and 1823 Lemon lived at Church Farmhouse, where a blue plaque commemorates him.

Lemon was educated at Cheam School, then in Surrey. This was then strictly for the sons of gentlemen only, and a boy had to leave when his father was found to be a tradesman, with a shop in London selling cutlery. It seems that the family background of young Lemon was not discovered.

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

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. More than sixty of his melodramas, operettas and comedies were produced in London, whilst at the same time he was contributing to a wide variety of magazines and newspapers.

He married Helen (Nelly) Romer, on 28 September 1839 in Kensington, London and had eight children – sons Mark, Frank and Henry, and daughters Alice, Betty, Helen, Mary and Kate. Frank died shortly after he was born. Betty married Sir Robert Romer and their son was Mark Lemon Romer.