 | About Boys Own
See below for the history of this magazine
The first edition went on sale on January 18th, 1879 and ran until 1967 (Volume 89).
The idea for Boy's Own Paper was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society who wanted to launch a weekly paper for boys so that they could be steered clear of the rash of "Penny Dreadfuls" that had sprung into life after the famous 1870 Education Act that made schooling compulsory for all.
Boys in increasing numbers were clamouring for something to read and B.O.P. was intended to provide first-class stories for boys of all backgrounds and ensure at the same time that they met an underlying Christian morality during their formative years.
In its earliest version Boy's Own Paper was a weekly paper of 16 pages, in a buff-brown cover, and cost the princely sum of 1 penny. Many copies of this first edition were in fact given away in schools to ensure a good circulation. Another tremendous factor in its immediate success was the railway system of Great Britain and the one thousand railway bookstalls of Mr. W.H. Smith.The front cover of the first issue was a story entitled "My First Football Match by an Old Boy", unfortunately for my tastes referring to a rugby game.
In a 1954 article by Stanley Matthews, the celebrated England footballer, recorded the following incident : "A small boy in one of our large industrial towns once asked me, "What does it feel like to play for England ?" I could see that he was puzzled and very, very interested. "Do you play soccer, son ?" I asked him. He nodded. "Then you know what it's like to play for England. Every boy in England who does his best to play a good clean, worth-while game is playing for his country."
The Boy's Own could never be described as a football magazine but they had worked out that a front cover featuring a famous player would help with circulation. But it would be just the one article on football and the majority content made up of derring-do adventure stories.
About Boy's Own .
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