Eagle annual 4 (1955) contained a story written by Chad 'founder of the Samaritans' Varah and Norman 'father of Pat' Williams.
The story was entitled 'The street-arabs' friend' and told the story of Dr Barnardo and how he came to set up the institution that we would come to know as Barnardo's.
So this follows in the 'tradition' of Eagle publishing true-life (back page) stories and it used two well established Eagle figures to present this story.
Until now I just thought that was the end of this strip, the one-off appearance in the annual, but it turns out I was wrong...
In fact the whole strip was reprinted by Barnardo's in the form of a piece of promotional literature to promote the "Barnardo Helpers' League"
This must count as one of the most obscure pieces of Eagle spin-off publications out there, good luck hunting a copy down!
You can't see it on the scan below very well but there is a note which says "Printed by the Apprentices at the Press of Dr. Barnardo's, Goldings, Hertford, Leaflet No. 3/67" - so I'm guessing this is form 1967??
You'll see that this leaflet has reference number 1/59 on it - so perhaps this leaflet was produced in 1959 and thus pre-dates the 'green' pamphlet (with its 3/67 reference - which I surmised was produced in 1967).
The story was entitled 'The street-arabs' friend' and told the story of Dr Barnardo and how he came to set up the institution that we would come to know as Barnardo's.
So this follows in the 'tradition' of Eagle publishing true-life (back page) stories and it used two well established Eagle figures to present this story.
Until now I just thought that was the end of this strip, the one-off appearance in the annual, but it turns out I was wrong...
In fact the whole strip was reprinted by Barnardo's in the form of a piece of promotional literature to promote the "Barnardo Helpers' League"
This must count as one of the most obscure pieces of Eagle spin-off publications out there, good luck hunting a copy down!
You can't see it on the scan below very well but there is a note which says "Printed by the Apprentices at the Press of Dr. Barnardo's, Goldings, Hertford, Leaflet No. 3/67" - so I'm guessing this is form 1967??
UPDATE:
I've now discovered that there was another edition of this pamphlet...the 'blue' edition...
You'll see that this leaflet has reference number 1/59 on it - so perhaps this leaflet was produced in 1959 and thus pre-dates the 'green' pamphlet (with its 3/67 reference - which I surmised was produced in 1967).