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Abstract
This paper emphasises the significance of John Bull magazine as part of the media history narrative of Britain in the period leading up to World War I. Launched by Horatio Bottomley in 1906, the magazine was able to generate a significant readership among working class men by offering an appealing mixture of topical political, social and economic content in a relatively high quality penny magazine. The magazine’s success in this period is partly explained by the support received from its publisher Odhams Press. In addition, innovative features of the magazine stemmed from the high profile of Bottomley himself, the role it played in providing early initiatives in consumer protection, its facilitation of small-scale betting, and the creation of the John Bull League, an affiliated organisationin which readers were able to subscribe for membership and which was effectively utilised to garner support for a new form of Business Government.
Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at The Centre for Printing History and Culture Annual Symposium, Birmingham University, in 2016 and the Association of Business Historians Annual Conference, Exeter University, in 2015. The authors are grateful for feedback from the delegates at these two events. We thank Bodleian Library, University of Oxford for providing us the permission to reproduce the images in this paper of Media History.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Arthur, Lost Voices, 367.
2. The reason for the detour to Charing Cross station was to provide ambulatory services to the crippled Labour MP Philip Snowden. Brock and Brock, Margot Asquith’s Great War Diary, 124.
3. Notice of Bottomley’s contribution to the forthcoming first issue of the Sunday Pictorial was publicised in the Daily Mail, March 13, 1915. By late 1917 the Sunday Pictorial was claiming an audited circulation of 2.6 million. McEwen, “National Press,” 483.
4. See Powell, Edwardian Crisis.
5. Chapman, Comparative Media History, 117.
6. The significance of providing an opportunity to bet on horse-racing and football matches for the popularity of mass media periodicals is noted in Briggs and Burke, Social History of the Media, 192.
7. Bingham, “Ignoring the First Draft of History,” 311–2.
8. Robb, British Culture; Gregory, Last Great War. Gregory’s account contains numerous citations to John Bull along with another Odhams Press title launched during the war, Passing Show.
9. Royal Commission, Final Report, 7–8. The minimal financial penalties stipulated for contravening the laws on betting proved a major obstacle in efforts to control its spread during the early twentieth century.
10. Felstead, Horatio Bottomley, 58–68.
11. According to Hyman’s account the Sun was sold to the proprietors of the Globe newspaper. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 82. However, Minney states that the Sun was sold to Sir William Madge, owner of the popular Sunday newspaper The People. Minney, Lord Southwood, 82.
12. The assertion that the title of the leading section of John Bull was taken directly from the Sun is found in Morris, “Bottomley”, Minney, Lord Southwood, 82 and Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 78.
13. Taylor has noted that the character of John Bull was employed extensively by Punch in its lampooning of the Tory regime in mid-Victorian Britain. Taylor, “John Bull,” 108–17.
14. John Bull, Vol. 2, No. 53, June 8, 1907.
15. Mitchell Newspaper Press Directory, various years. Mitchell’s first enumerated the total magazines issued annually in its edition of 1861 which data it continued to provide until 1903.
16. This first issue of John Bull printed by Odhams is missing from the British Library’s microfilmed public archive. The first Odhams issue available from that source is Vol. 1 No. 2 which was dated June 16, 1906 and began its 24 page edition with page 25.
17. Odhams, Business and I, 53.Odhams had taken complete control over John Bull’s finances by the end of 1909. Minney, Lord Southwood, 108–9.
18. Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 157.
19. About £5 million was being spent annually on gambling at the beginning of the twentieth century. In comparison, spending on newspapers was just below £8 million. On the eve of the war the respective figures were £5.5 million and over £13 million. Read, Edwardian England, 53, 60.
20. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 31.
21. Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 26–35.
22. Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 47–66.
23. Felstead, Horatio Bottomley, 121–8; Hyman, Rise and Fall, 36–51.
24. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 21.
25. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 29–30; 71–9.
26. John Bull, 6 May 1906.
27. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 89, 135.
28. Minney, Viscount Southwood, 107.
29. Reed, Popular Magazine in Britain, 137–9. The Advertisers’ Protection Society had been formed in 1900 and its Monthly Circulars included publishers’ claimed circulation figures, the Society’s own estimates and such audited figures as were sent to them or obtained in the course of its business. Given that these figures were produced to protect advertisers from being misled by inflated circulation figures produced by the publishers it is not unreasonable to assume that they would tend to err on the side of caution.
30. McEwen, “National Press,” 476.
31. John Bull, 8 January 1916.
32. Attendance figure is quoted from Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 120.
33. For example the issue of John Bull dated 12 November 1910 provides reports of the League from branches in Birmingham, Sheffield, Darlington, Walsall, Wolverhampton and North East London.
34. Quinn, History of British Magazine Design, 22. Quinn notes that this sparked a debate in Parliament questioning whether such competitions constituted illegal lotteries.
35. Mrs Bull was re-titled Mary Bull after the accession to the throne of King George V. In March 1915 it was replaced by a new women’s penny weekly title called Everywoman’s Weekly.
36. According to Reed’s analysis, the amount of editorial space allocated to sport in John Bull grew from 1.59% in 1910 to 6.17% in 1920. This made it a more prominent feature in John Bull during 1920 than in any of the three other leading popular weeklies analysed. Reed, Popular Magazine in Britain, Appendices.
37. Daily Mail, 17 October 1911.
38. Munting, “Betting and Business,” 70.
39. John Bull had provided a platform for turf accountants from the outset. In the issue of 16 June 1906 John Robertson & Co invited readers of the magazine to write for terms and provided both a telegraphic address and telephone numbers. Bottomley himself owned a string of racehorses.
40. Mason, Association Football, 181–5.
41. John Bull, 6 January 1912.
42. The rival magazine Truth was a particular source of criticism for the various activities promoted by John Bull.
43. See Daily Mail, 20 July 1909 and 6 April 1910.
44. In the following issue of the magazine the managers of the Prudential were given space to provide a response to these allegations, although there was no direct rebuttal of the charges on behalf of the company at this point. John Bull, 6 May 1911.
45. The strongest rebuttal of John Bull’s case against the Prudential was mounted in a pamphlet issued by the trade publication Commercial World entitled John Bull and the Prudential Assurance Co. The Commercial World’s comments on an attack that failed. Available from the LSE Library Archive, Ref HG/1186.
46. Times, 13 May 1912. As an undischarged bankrupt, Bottomley was formally appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, a procedural device that allowed Members of Parliament to resign from the House of Commons. His resignation speech to the constituents of South Hackney was published in John Bull on 25 May 1912.
47. Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 150.
48. John Bull, 20 July 1912.
49. The key points of this speech were reported in The Times, 13 May 1912. Bottomley’s speech is reported in full in John Bull, 18 May 1912.
50. John Bull, 24 February and 30 March 1912.
51. See, for example, John Bull, 18 May and 20 July 1912.
52. John Bull, 4 July 1914.
53. John Bull, 17 February 1912.
54. Ferguson, Pity of War, 219.
55. Charman, First World War, 48–9.
56. De Groot, Blighty, 177.
57. John Bull, 15 August and 5 September 1914.
58. Koss, Political Press in Britain, 268.
59. John Bull, 11 December 1915.
60. John Bull, 6 January 1912.
61. Times, 22 and 27 November 1915.
62. John Bull, 4 December 1915.
63. Times, 9 December 1915. Samuel had held the position of Postmaster General and the by-election was triggered by his appointment to replace Churchill as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1916 he was made Home Secretary.
64. Taylor, “John Bull,” 124. Hyman notes that the brewers paid Bottomley a large subsidy to spearhead the campaign which no doubt provided the funds he needed to launch his new political party. Hyman, Rise and Fall, 178.
65. Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 187.
66. Times, 11 December 1915.
67. John Bull, 18 December 1915.
68. Times, 13 December 1915.
69. John Bull, 15 January 1916.
70. John Bull, 22 January 1916; Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 187.
71. See for example the full page advertisement for Passing Show shortly after its launch in John Bull, 20 March 1915.
72. Cox and Mowatt, Revolutions from Grub Street, 56–60.
73. Koss, Political Press in Britain, 355.
74. Cowling, Impact of Labour, 53.
75. Daily Mail, 15 November 1919.
76. Cowling, Impact of Labour, 45–59.
77. Times, 3 July 1919.
78. Odhams had printed the National News for its Dutch owners who sold it to them following the outbreak of the war. Odhams continued to print the paper but sold it almost immediately to Sir Henry Dalziel, from whom Bottomley purchased it in 1917. Minney, Lord Southwood, 132. See also Koss, Political Press in Britain, 320.
79. Minney, Viscount Southwood, 151–2.
80. Rawling, “Swindler of the Century,” 48.
81. Minney, Viscount Southwood, 167–71.