| Type | weekly paper (1892-July 2, 1932) Monthly (1932-July 1934) Yearly[1] |
|---|---|
| Format | unknown |
| Owner | Cassell and Company (1892-January 1927) Amalgamated Press |
| Publisher | Cassell and Company (1892-January 1927) Amalgamated Press[1] |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | September 1941[1] |
| Headquarters | London |
Chums was a boys' weekly newspaper started in 1892 that was the official paper of the British Boy Scouts and British Boys' Naval Brigade (National Naval Cadets). The publisher also gathered the weekly paper into monthly and annual editions.[1] The serial ceased publication in 1941.
Started by Cassell and Company in 1892 as a weekly newspaper for boys, it was apparently modelled on—and in competition for readers with—the Boy's Own Paper, having articles and stories covering various topics. Chums launched with a serial "For Glory and Renown" by D. H. Parry and articles on football training, Harrow School, and Julius Caesar in Britain. Initially Chums had problems gaining readers but two serials, "The Iron Pirate", by first editor Max Pemberton in 1892, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1894, pushed the paper into some success.[1]
Chums' "On the Watch Tower" news column reported on September 11, 1907 that Robert Baden-Powell's Brownsea Island Scout camp was proposed and his recommendation that Boy Scout groups should be formed. Later, Chums indicated that there would be a Legion of Chums Scouts formed from the Chums Scout Patrols to be announced later. Eventually Chums announced the launch of the British Boy Scouts and that it would be their official journal in May 1909.[2]