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MAG018 - Edition 2,000

  Boy's Own

In 1879, the Religious Tract Society launched the first Boys' Own Paper or B.O.P. as it was to become known. The newsagents believed that the schoolboy of that time would not patronise a high-toned publication such as this, but contrary to their expectation, the B.O.P. was a runaway success. It quickly became accepted by parents and more importantly boys. It reached a circulation of 250,000 copies a week and was a phenominal success. It's golden period was undoubtedly 1879-1913, with writers of the calibre of Jules Verne, R.M. Ballantyne, Conan Doyle, Talbot Baines Reed, G.A. Henty and Leslie Charteris. Some of their stories were printed in B.O.P. before they got published as books and there were many writers of rank writing for the paper. Most notably, Captain (later Major) Charles Gilson who wrote about his exploits from first hand experience and the readers were gripped. Sport and self well-being were very important to B.O.P. and the subject was catered for by the likes of W.G.Grace and rugby's Dr Irvine, the then Scottish Captain. Football had Steve Bloomer and Patsy Hendren writing about it. There was also strong support for boxing, lawn tennis, fencing, chess, athletics and even mountaineering. The publication finally folded after 88 years in 1967.