Young Soldier

The Little Soldier (1881-present) began publication in August 1881 as a half-penny eight-page weekly. The title changed to The Young Soldier from 7 January 1888 and to Kids Alive! from 6 April 1996. Still in weekly publication, this makes the title the longest running children’s periodical in continuous publication in the world.

Intended as a junior version of the Salvation Army’s evangelical newspaper, The War Cry, its original subtitle was ‘Our Children’s War Cry.’ The new periodical was designed to appeal to younger readers and included serial stories, poems and illustrations. The original masthead was even designed by a 12 year old. Its content also included reports of Salvation Army work with children from all over the country, accounts of junior Salvationists (‘Little Soldiers’) who had died, reports from Bands of Hope warning of the dangers of alcohol and updates from the wider Salvation Army world. Each issue included a dedicated page of eight “original songs for the Little Soldier.” From the late 1920s, The Young Soldier began to publish cartoon strips for children (a decade earlier than some well-known national children’s comics), starting with the ‘Bunny Boys’ and developing a range of strip cartoons including ‘Peter of the Primary’, ‘Alice at the Army’ and finally the long running ‘Bram’.

The first editor was George Scott Railton, who had been the first editor of The War Cry, he was quickly followed by the pioneer of Salvation Army children’s work, John Roberts and then the first of many female editors of The Little Soldier was Staff-Captain Vitty Ward from 1885. By the early 1890s, its weekly circulation had passed 110,000 copies. From the 5 January 1895 the size doubled to 16 pages but the price remained ½d until 1920 when it rose to 1d. Kids Alive! now retails for 50p and has a circulation of more than 13,000 copies.