Identity:
Sir John Richard Somers Vine was a journalist and civil servant. He married Eliza Porter in 1870.
Life:
Vine spent his early career as a journalist, before he was appointed private secretary to the Lord Mayor of London in 1871. He returned to journalism in 1876 (as editor of the Cambridge Chronicle and University Intelligencer) whilst holding a number of other civil service posts, including that of agent to the Colonial Exhibitions (1883-1886) and Assistant Secretary to the Imperial Institute (from 1886).
Bibliography:
Who's Who, 1898, London, 1898; Who Was Who, 1929-1940, London, 1941.