The Schoolgirls' Own

The Schoolgirls' Own was published weekly from Feb 1921 to May 1936, a total of 798 issues. It was started by the Amalgamated Press as a Companion Paper to the successful School Friend for the girls story paper market in the same manner as the Gem and Magnet were for the boys, but as those two also had their girl readers, the SO also drew many boy readers. This was partly down to the SO having a very attractive appearance, Leonard Shields drew the covers (when not used as adverts instead) and interior for the Morcove stories throughout its run which very much added to and contrasted well with Marjorie Stanton's (Horace Philips) writings. Phillips whose writing style could be very Victorian sentimentalist in outlook, took his chance when offered by the AP to create his own fictional school - Morcove School in Devon, basing some of his characters in part on successful ones created by Charles Hamilton for the boys papers. The main characters revolved around Betty Barton - the whole saga really began with her coming to Morcove from Lancashire as a penniless scholarship girl (with echoes of Mark Linley), doing her best to overcome adversity and eventually winning, to ultimately get voted Fourth Form Captain. Over the years there were many adventures and many ups and downs but she maintained her position as a more demure Tom Merry - "We'll manage" becoming a kind of catchphrase for her. She established a circle of friends that became known as the Study no. 12 coterie, staunch friends being madcap Polly Linton (almost Bob Cherry), languid Paula Creel (a feminine D'Arcy), and later playful Naomer Nakara arrived in a Hurree Singh role. Plus Dolly, Madge, Tess and in the early days, Trixie. In the late '20's the ultra-sophisticated Pam Willoughby arrived, who turned out the last major character to be introduced into the stories. On the baddies side there was at the first Cora and Judith Grandways, replaced in the '30's with the carbon-copy scheming Denver sisters. There were many more regulars, all part of a delightful little old fashioned world. However in the harsher world of 1936 its popularity had waned and Morcove was submerged into the Schoolgirl for 2 years, the last story appearing the Annual in 1938 while the Schoolgirls' Own Library reprints of the tales carried on until 1940 when the War closed it down. You can find more information on Morcove School here.

Thanks to Gary for the introduction and the list of issues based on the works of Lofts and Adley.

A number of the stories have now been scanned, click on the links from the table below to open the files.