Henry Mayhew

Henry Mayhew (November 25, 1812 – July 25, 1887) was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright, and reformer. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days. 

He is better known, however, for his social research, publishing an extensive series of newspaper articles in the Morning Chronicle, later compiled into the book series London Labour and the London Poor, a groundbreaking and influential survey of the poor of London. 

As well as influencing literary authors like Charles Dickens, Mayhew's research pioneered criminological efforts at understanding the relationship between crime and other variables by using maps. He thus contributed a striking commentary and documentation of social conditions and ideas and techniques for understanding the relationship between these conditions and crime.

Henry Mayhew was born in London on November 25, 1812, one of seventeen children of Joshua Mayhew. He was educated at Westminster school before running away from his studies to sea, at the age of 12. He then served with the East India Company as a midshipman on a ship bound for Calcutta, India.

In 1829, he returned to Britain, where he became a trainee lawyer in Wales, working with his father for the next three years. After a while, he decided to enter a career in journalism and became a freelance journalist. He contributed to The Thief, a reader's digest, followed quickly by writing the play Figaro in London, in 1829. Along with continuing to develop his writing, Mayhew briefly managed the Queen's Theatre.