The first edition of the Mail – a four-page broadsheet with small advertisements dominating the front page – rolled off the presses on September 29, 1885. Since that day the paper has been an integral part of local life in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Publication was uninterrupted even during the Blitz of 1941 when Hitler’s bombs devastated the city of Hull. For security reasons the location of the bombing could not be identified, Hull being referred to in news reports only as “a North East Coast Town”.
“Hull Daily Mail – a Part of the Community” has been written by retired journalist Barbara Robinson (pictured), who spent 37 years at the Mail, including a stint as its “Jane Humber” columnist, and has been published to coincide with the Mail’s year of celebrations in 2010.
The book has been a labour of love for Barbara, who originally intended to complete it in time for the Mail’s centenary in 1985. She finally finished it with assistance from the Mail’s history columnist John Markham, who has written a final chapter recording events of recent years.
Barbara started at the Mail as a secretary before becoming a reporter and writing the Jane Humber column. She said: “The Editor at the time, Bill Sneyd, asked me to work on the book in 1980, and I said ‘I don’t know if I can do anything of that magnitude’. I’ve worked on it for so long and hope it will be a success.
“I think everybody will enjoy it. Every family in this city has grown up with the Hull Daily Mail.”
Current Editor John Meehan said: “As so much has changed, the Mail has been a constant, reporting events and championing the interests of the community and people we are here to serve.
“Barbara’s book tells a story of local life, as captured through the reporter’s notebook and photographer’s lens. It is a social history as well as the story of how a newspaper survived and prospered, through good times and bad.”
The paper is carrying a double page spread of excerpts from the book all this week.
The serialisation tells how:
* The paper was originally launched to get one of its founders elected as a Tory MP. It succeeded in this aim but soon committed itself to unbiased reporting.
* It carried a series of “specials” in 1930 to record the historic solo flight to Australia by Hull’s aviation pioneer Amy Johnson
* In 1961, when there was no other local means of public information, coverage in the Mail helped to ensure the entire population of Hull and neighbouring areas were inoculated against polio with the new Salk vaccine.
* The ritual visit from a Mail reporter, carrying the Editor’s condolences, brought comfort to many hundreds of fishing families who lost loved ones at sea but were robbed of a “proper funeral”.
Mr Meehan added: “Barbara tells a wonderful story. The Mail’s history is chequered with editorial and commercial rivalries, incredible events and colourful characters.
“I have heard so many stories of the ‘old days’ and absorbed so much of the Mail’s heritage, but I still found Barbara’s book utterly absorbing.”
As part of a year of celebrations the Mail plans to reprint a replica of the first edition on the 125th anniversary, on 29th September, and give it away free with that day’s paper.
The Mail will soon announce its support for a major local appeal, to leave a lasting legacy from the milestone.
It has also appealed to readers who have featured in the Mail’s pages to get in touch so the paper can rekindle their treasured memories once again.
