Founded as the The Daily Telegraph and Courier by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855. Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, and to pay for the inital cost of printing the first edition. However, the newspaper was not a succes and Colonel Sleigh was unable to pay the ongoing costs. Joseph Levy took over the newspaper and relaunched it as The Daily Telegraph.

(b. 1939) Professor in Plant Biochemistry Trewavas obtained both his undergraduate degree and Ph.D in Biochemistry at University College London investigating aspects of phosphate metabolism of plants before continuing to complete his postdoctoral research at University of East Anglia. In the early 1970s he was invited to be first Visiting Professor at the Plant Research laboratory in Michigan State University following which he visited many universities across America and Europe before being announced as Professor Emeritus in the University of Edinburgh in 2004. Trewavas' research on plant genetic engineering was at the forefront of the media in the 1990s due to his creation of a light producing plant. Trewavas was also very vocal during the GM crop debates particularly about organic crops versus genetically modified crops. It was his view that organic plants were much worse than GM plants and In October 2001 was named in the High Court in London as the source of a letter making libellous allegations against Lord Melchett and Greenpeace. In response to this publicity he wrote in letters that he denies responsibility for the libel letter published under his name.