posted on 22 Jan 2016

Young England: An Illustrated Magazine For Boys

In the summer of 1914 Britain was embarking on a war that the majority of the population thought would be over by Christmas and which was still at the time being talked about by politicians, the media and a spattering of deranged jingoists as a chance for our gallant army to have another tilt at glory. Well, as we know, things turned out to be a bit different.

What, you might ask yourself, were our young boys reading as 1914 turned into 1915? Young England: An illustrated magazine for boys might well have been one of things that sat at the bottom of the Christmas Tree that year – it would certainly have been too hefty to slip into the stocking over the mantelpiece, that’s for sure.

A whole host of academic studies have established the role children’s books of this kind had in helping to pass on colonial politics to the next generation and their part in helping to establish the rules of gender behaviour is undeniable. There's also a pretty generous dollop of casual racism - especially towards the treacherous Chinese. This collection of stories, articles and instruction belongs firmly in that tradition.

There are the inevitable stories of wartime gallantry and outback, wilderness derring-do that are the core of the collection. Many of these stories look back to conflicts from the previous era of Empire-building and whilst there are stories that reflect the war going on at the time, these are largely cosmetic, non-committal references rather than full-blooded propaganda.

There is also a fair spattering of ‘how to’ articles that focus on manual, manly skills. Probably the most intimidating of these shows the youngster how to make himself a tent or emergency shelter. What is probably the most striking about this isn’t just the complexity of the task but assumptions about the availability of the resources you’d need to complete this.

Whatever the article is, however, there is one thing that remains consistent – the extraordinary length and density of the text and the linguistic demands it makes on its readers. I think I can pretty safely say that Young England would be unlikely to attract a mass audience of today’s boys who are much more accustomed to short sharp messages that demand very little concentration.

This book is a time capsule that allows us to travel back to the middle class sitting rooms and bedrooms of an Edwardian Britain that was just about to change forever. It’s a fascinating thing that can still be found for relatively small amounts of money (under £20) but, if you’re interested, get hold of one soon because these things will be as long dead as the dinosaurs in the not too distant future.

 

Terry Potter

January 2016