Alfred Bate Richards (1820–1876) was an English journalist and author. He turned from law to literature and was the author of a number of popular dramas, volumes of poems, and essays. He was the first editor of the Daily Telegraph, and afterwards of the Morning Advertiser. He was one of the leading advocates for the volunteer movement. Together with authors and journalists such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackery, Richards was a leading member of the Administrative Reform Association, founded in 1854.[3] He was on the platform for the Association's meeting of 26 January 1856 that strongly criticised the British Government's failings that had contributed to the fall of the Turkish fortress of Kars towards the end of the Crimean War.[4]