Wipers Times

The Wipers Times

The Wipers Times, March 1916 issue
Editor	Capt. F. J. Roberts
Sub-editor	Lt. J. H. Pearson
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	February 1916
Final issue	December 1918
Country	Belgium & France
Language	English

The Wipers Times was a trench magazine that was published by British soldiers fighting in the Ypres Salient during the First World War.

In early 1916, the 12th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, was stationed in the front line at Ypres, Belgium, and came across a printing press abandoned by a Belgian who had, in the words of the editor, "stood not on the order of his going, but gone." A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime salvaged it and printed a sample page. The paper itself was named after Tommy slang for Ypres itself:

THE

B.E.F. TIMES.

with which are incorporated

Publication was held up after February 1918 by the German offensive on the western front in that year, but at the end of the War two issues of "The Better Times" were published. The second of these was billed as the "Xmas, Peace and Final Number."

Presses used: Reading through the issues it appears that three different printing presses were used.

Page size: In 2014 No. 1 Vol. 1. and No. 2 Vol 1. Saturday 12 February 1916 and Saturday 26 February 1916 came to light and were offered on eBay. They were string bound, in thick-paper wraps (printed verso and recto with exception of rear wrap of No. 2 which is printed verso only), enclosing 4 leaves (8pp) of printed text in each issue. Size: Small 4to - each 11in x 7.15in (27.8 cm x 18 cm).

The names of the staff involved in the paper are mostly unrecorded. The editor was Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) F. J. Roberts (Frederick John Roberts), MC, the sub-editor was Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-Colonel) J. H. Pearson (John Hesketh ("Jack") Pearson), DSO, MC. A notable contributor to the paper was Artilleryman Gilbert Frankau. Also worthy of note are the engravings by E.J. Couzens; his portrait of a chinless platoon commander clutching his cane and wondering "Am I as offensive as I might be?" became the paper's motif.