Charles Prestwich Scott was born on October 26, 1846, in Bath, Somerset, England.

He was a British journalist, editor, publisher, and Liberal politician. He was educated at Clapham Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A., 1869). In 1870, he went to Edinburgh for a six-month apprenticeship at The Scotsman. His cousin John Taylor, who ran the London office of the Manchester Guardian, offered Scott the post of editor in 1872. Scott already enjoyed a familial connection with the paper; its founder, John Edward Taylor, was his uncle, and at the time of his birth, his father, Russell Scott, was the paper's owner, though he later sold it back to Taylor's sons. Scott remained the editor of the Manchester Guardian until 1929, the longest editorship of a national newspaper anywhere in the world. In 1895, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Leigh. He was an advocate for women's suffrage and the reform of the House of Lords. In 1899, Scott strongly opposed the Boer War through the use of the Guardian. He retired from Parliament in 1906 and became the owner of the Manchester Guardian in 1907. His lifetime of service established the Manchester Guardian as a preeminent paper, acknowledged not only as a significant national paper in Britain but also recognized around the world. In 1923, Scott was made an honorary Fellow of his Oxford College, and in 1930, a Freeman of the City of Manchester.

In 1874, he married Rachel Susan Cook (1848–1905). He died on January 1, 1932, in Fallowfield, Lancashire, England.