“The Evening News has had an interesting history. It was first produced as an election sheet. When Mr Mitchell Henry, a member of a well-known family of Manchester warehousemen, in the year 1868 suffered defeat at the hands of the Manchester electors, he little knew what a far-reaching effect his candidature would have on the journalistic life in Manchester.

“To aid him in his candidature he did what other parliamentary candidates have done, he established a newspaper. It was little more than an election sheet published in the interests of Mr Henry and the Liberal party.

“For some weeks he published it, and then, having been defeated at the poll, he ceased his connection with the paper and sought a political refuge elsewhere. Its fortunes were then at a very low ebb, and there was some doubt as to whether it would be advisable to continue it as a newspaper.

“But Mr William Evans, a far-seeing man who was associated with the early production, saw that in it he had just what the public wanted and, calling to his aid the capital of Mr Peter Allen, who was connected with the commercial side of the Manchester Guardian, he took over the concern, and the Manchester Evening News was launched upon a career which proved one of astonishing success.”