Rare, near-complete run of the most important of the newspapers to emerge from the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. The brainchild of two members of the 12th Battalion of The Sherwood Foresters who located a serviceable printing press amidst the ruins of Ypres, this run comprises 22 of the 23 original issues - only exceeded by the complete set held by The National Army Museum in London.
This collection has superb provenance to Lieutenant Lancelot Shaw Pentecost who served alongside the creators of the newspaper in the 12th Sherwood Foresters. Over the two years that the newspaper was published Pentecost went from being ‘Lt Pentecost’ as he inscribed himself on the Wipers Times, February 1916 to ‘Capt Pentecost’ in March 1917, winning a Military Cross and almost certainly contributing a column to the newspaper under the byline ‘Lancelot’.
Produced in tiny numbers - around 100 for the first issue, later expanding to 250 - these copies show evidence of the shared ownership that characterised the paper’s readership in the trenches with ‘Lt Pentecost’ written on the first issue but other names noted on the wrappers later in the run. After the war Captain Pentecost placed this run of The Wipers Times alongside The Kemmel Times and The Somme Times which succeeded it in a cloth binding, holding the individual imprint in place with silk ties. The result is that the first 10 issues are in unusually good condition for such a delicate publication, produced in such challenging circumstances. Later issues are lightly marked and stained in places, occasionally disbound wrappers. The last two issues of The Better Times are disbound.
As the editors put it in the first issue: ‘Having managed to pick up a printing outfit (slightly soiled) at a reasonable price, we have decided to produce a paper. There is much that we would like to say in it, but the shadow of censorship enveloping us causes us to refer to the war, which we hear is taking place in Europe, in a cautious manner.’ In fact that censorship is visible in the newspaper with several blacked out passages, viz the ‘Song of An Infantry Brigadier to his Men’ (B.E.F. Times No 1 Vol 2), two lines inked out and a larger passage in B.E.F. Vol 4 no2.
Immediately popular, the humorous publication satirised popular poets and authors and featured spoof advertisements, with the title changing according to the whereabouts of the regiment. The last two issues from 1918 are optimistically titled The "Better Times" as the soldier-writers prepared for demobilisation. Poetry appears throughout, sometimes under the authorship of the published author Gilbert Frankau but more usually pseudonymous (Berlary Hilloc; Herlock Sholmes) and always blackly satirical: ‘A Dweller in Wipers’ [Ypres’] Elegy to that Town’ - ‘A six-inch tolls the knell of parting day...’ The tone of the newspaper is witty and sophisticated, somewhere between a school magazine and the illustrated weeklies of the day, but set against the nightmarish, unnameable backdrop of war.
INSTITUTIONAL HOLDINGS are disorganised and with the exception of the National Army Museum, no other full set can be located. US holdings are particularly sparse.
WIPERS TIMES (4 issues) partial holdings at Penn; Johburg; Uni London; Paris
NEW CHURCH TIMES (4 issues): full holdings at Penn; Johburg
SOMME TIMES: (single issu) Newberry; Tulsa; BL
B.E.F. TIMES (11 issues) Staatsbiblio, Humboldt; BL
BETTER TIMES: (two issues - full) BL
Collated, our collection appears as follows:
THE WIPERS TIMES OR SALIENT NEWS,
No 1 Vol 1, 12th February 1916, ‘Lt Pentecost’ to cover; signed by Roberts, Pearson and Woods (p5)
No 2 Vol 1, 26th February 1916, ‘Lt Pentecost’
No 3 Vol 1, 6th March 1916, ‘Sapper G.S. Cougens R.?’ (crossed out)
No 4 Vol 2, 20th March 1916
THE “NEW CHURCH” TIMES With which is Incorporated The Wipers Times,
No 1. Vol 1. 17th April 1916: ‘we regret to announce that the WIPERS TIMES is now defunct...’
No 2 Vol 1, 8th May 1916
No 3 Vol 1, 22nd May 1916: editorial announces increase of print run ‘to 250 copies, commencing with this number.’
No 4 Vol 1, 29th May 1916, ‘Lt Pentecost’ to upper cover [pp] 16.
THE KEMMEL TIMES with Which are Incorporated The Wipers Times & The “New Church” Times,
No1 Vol 1, 3rd July 1916
THE SOMME-TIMES, with Which are Incorporated The Wipers Times, The “New Church” Times & The Kemmel Times
No 1 Vol 1 31st July 1916
[End of Bound Volume]
THE B[RITISH] E[XPEDITIONARY] F[ORCE] TIMES. with which are incorporated The Wipers Times, The “New Church” Times, The Kemmel Times & The Somme Times.
No 1 Vol 1 1st December 1916 ‘A long time has elapsed since our last number... in fact at one one time it seemed that our tenth number would also be our last, as the press was marooned in the midst of a disturbance which taking place down South’ - the Battle of the Somme! [pp] 12
No 2 Vol 1, 25th December 1916 ‘Grand Xmas Double Number’, taller format
[No 3 Vol 1 - missing]
No 4 Vol 1, March 5th, 1917, ‘Capt Pentecost’ ownership signature to upper cover in pencil
No 5 Vol I, April 10th 1917
THE B[RITISH] E[XPEDITIONARY] F[ORCE] TIMES with which are incorporated The Wipers Times, The “New Church” Times, The Kemmel Times & The Somme Times.
No 1 Vol 2, August 15th 1917, delay in production due to ‘more war than is conducive to the steady production of a paper’, detached printed wrappers.
No 2 Vol 2, September 8th 1917
No 3 Vol 2, November 1st 1917
No 4 Vol 2, December 25th 1917: ‘The Grand Xmas Double Number’, wrappers detached
No 5 Vol 2, January 22nd, 1918, lower third of front wrapper missing; both wrappers detached
No 6 Vol 2, February 26th 1918,
THE “BETTER TIMES” with Which are Incorporated The Wipers Times, The “New Church” Times, The Kemmel Times, The Somme Times & The B.E.F. Times
No 1 Vol 1, November 1918, blue printed wrappers, detached and flaky towards edges: ‘The old staff as rallied around us (with many regrettable vacancies)... the war itself needs no comment, and a few more efforts should bust the Hun completely.’ Editorial references to American involvement.
No 2 Vol 1, December 1918, disbound, assumed to be lacking printed wrappers: ‘The end of the War none of us will ever regret...’. Outbreak of school-boy humour: ‘Scrap the pip-squeak, sixty pounders/ Six and eight inc, gun or how/ Soon we’ll be back playing rounders.’
