Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Rogers, Edmund Dawson
ROGERS, EDMUND DAWSON (1823–1910), journalist and spiritualist, born at Holt, Norfolk, on 7 Aug. 1823, was only surviving child of John Rogers and Sarah Dawson his wife.
After education at the Sir Thomas Gresham grammar school in his native town, and working for six years as chemist's apprentice and then as a chemist on his own account, he went in 1845 as surgeon's dispenser to Wolverhampton. He soon afterwards joined the staff of the 'Staffordshire Mercury,' published at Hanley, and in 1848 went to Norwich to take charge of the ’Norfolk News,' a weekly periodical founded in 1845. On 10 Oct. 1870 he started for the proprietors of the 'Norfolk News' the first daily paper in the eastern counties, the 'Eastern Counties Daily Press,' which since May 1871 has been known as the 'Eastern Daily Press.' Removing early in 1873 to London, he established the National Press Agency in Shoe Lane (now in Carmelite Street) ; this he managed until his retirement on a pension in 1894. In his early days in London Rogers helped to produce a weekly paper, 'The Circle'; later he produced on his own account ’The Tenant Farmer' and 'The Free Speaker' (1873–4).
Rogers, who had been brought up a strict Wesleyan, was introduced by Sir Isaac Pitman [q. v. Suppl. I] to Swedenborg's writings, which greatly influenced his religious views; later he was led to study mesmerism and mesmeric healing. He had also while living at Hanley made the acquaintance of Joseph Barker [q. v.]. Convincing himself of the genuineness of spiritualistic manifestations, he helped to form in 1873 the British National Association of Spiritualists. On 8 Jan. 1881 he founded a weekly journal, 'Light,' which became the leading organ of spiritualism and psychical research, and was its editor from 1894 till his death. In 1882 Rogers, Prof. W. F. Barrett, and others joined in establishing the Society for Psychical Research; among the original members were F. W. H. Myers [q. v. Suppl. I], Prof. Henry Sidgwick [q. v. Suppl. I], Edmund Gumey [q. v.], and William Stainton Moses [q. v.]. Rogers was a member of the council from 1882 to 1885. Although painstaking and cautious in psychical research, Rogers, to whom spiritualism was of vital importance, had little sympathy with what he considered the anti-spiritualistic bias of the Psychical Research Society, and resigned his membership in its early years, although he subsequently became an honorary member in 1894. In 1884 he was a founder of the London Spiritualist Alliance, of which he was president from 1892 to death.
On his eightieth birthday he was presented with an album consisting of an illuminated address signed by 1500 spiritualists from all parts of the world. In July 1907 his health failed, and he died at Finchley on 28 Sept. 1910. He was buried in the Marylebone cemetery, Finchley. His 'Life and Experiences,' an autobiography, came out in 1911. Rogers married, on 11 July 1843, Sophia Jane (d. 1892), daughter of Joseph and Ann Hawkes, and had issue two sons and four daughters. The younger surviving daughter, Alice, married in January 1908 Mr. Henry Withall, treasurer and vice-president of the London Spiritualist Alliance. His portrait in oils, painted by James Archer, R.S.A. [q. v. Suppl. II], in 1901, was presented by the artist to the London Spiritualist Alliance.
[Light, 8 Oct. 1910 (obit. memoir), 15 Oct., and following issues (autobiography); published separately as Life and Experiences of Dawson Rogers, 1911 (portraits); Mystic Light Library Bulletin, Feb. 1912; Journ. Soc. Psych. Research, Oct. 1910, xiv. 372; Rogers's horoscope by John B. Shipley (Sarastro) in Modern Astrology, March 1911, pp. 106–109; J. S. Farmer's 'Twixt Two Worlds, pp. 147 seq.; F. Podmore, Modern Spiritualism, 1902, ii. 176–8; private information.]