“WHY IS The Times called The Thunderer?” asks a reader from Bedfordshire. “Is it because of its fierce editorials berating the governments of the day? They don’t seem to be as fierce today as, say, in the 1960s, although some of your columnists can be very fierce!”

Over to the archive and records office for enlightenment. The nickname The Thunderer was established in 1830. London society was in shock after the strange death of Lord Graves on February 7, 1830. He had been found dead in his room by his servants with his throat cut from ear to ear and two razors beside the candle, but with no sign of a suicide note. The jury at the inquest, which was held the morning after and concluded within two hours, “without hesitation returned a verdict that the deceased . . . died by a wound inflicted by himself on his throat in a sudden fit of delirium”.

The Times immediately attacked both the verdict and the conduct of the inquest in a leading article published on February 9. The leader, most probably written by Captain Edward Sterling, provoked a strong reaction. After attacks from other newspapers and a letter to The Times from the coroner, which was published on February 11, another leading article was published, which contained the phrase “. . . we thundered out that article in Tuesday’s paper which caused so great a sensation”.

This led The Morning Herald to publish, on February 15 and 17, two different articles about the affair. The first of these, signed “P.P.P.” and probably written by William Maginn, described The Times as “The Great Earwigger of the Nation, otherwise the Leading Journal of Europe, otherwise the Awful Monosyllable, otherwise The Thunderer — but more commonly called The Blunderer”. The reference was picked up by other newspapers and journals, and thus the nickname (Thunderer, not Blunderer, although neither is a patch on Great Earwigger) became established.

(Footnote: a leading article on the Reform Bill, published a year later on January 29, 1831, is often, but erroneously, cited as the origin of the nickname. Written by Thomas Barnes, it included the exhortation: “Unless the people everywhere come forward and petition, ay, thunder for reform, it is they who abandon an honest Minister — it is not the Minister who abandons them.”)

In this job it can be a long time between compliments, so I make no apology for publishing them when they do arrive. On Monday Lee Langley, of Richmond, e-mailed about the new poetry column in times2: “I spend a lot of time complaining fretfully about The Times and the trivialisation of column content, so I welcome today’s exhilarating column by Frieda Hughes. The interweaving of two poems with Hughes’s personal memories of the event that inspired the first, and wry reflections on the second, made for joyous breakfast reading. With this and Grayson Perry to look forward to every Wednesday, The Times is offering nourishment to the parts other columns don’t reach. Congratulations.”

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