‘Dictionary of Bullets’ published by John Bull to mark the 1000th competition in 1935
Ian Cowmeadow has started a blog based on his dad’s entries to the Bullets competition that ran for half a century in John Bull magazine. The magazine itself is now remembered for its colour illustrations and covers after the Second World War – a thousand of which can be seen at the Advertising Archives – but the game was one of the magazine’s most popular features in the days before crosswords when John Bull was published by Odhams with the great swindler and MP Horatio Bottomley as editor.
Ian’s ‘Bill the Bullet’ blog explores the notes and memorabilia kept by his dad, who won many prizes and regarded himself as a ‘Bulleteer’. Ian sums up the competitions by quoting Alan Bennett:
The playwright Alan Bennett, whose father was a Bullets obsessive, described the successful attempts as ‘verbal cartoons’. Even so, he still ‘couldn’t see the point or the humour of the entries that won; they seemed like Tommy Handley’s jokes – everybody said they were funny, but they never made you laugh’.
The John Bull Bullets competitions may be largely forgotten now, but I reckon it’s the reason Britain developed cryptic crosswords – the Bullets are really cryptic crossword clues in reverse and must have been fantastic training for composing crosswords.
Another example of the influence of Bullets can be found in Liverpool, where the Mahatma Magic Circle has had cause to be thankful to John Bull for 80 years:
In 1933, Oscar Paulson won the popular Bullets word competition in the John Bull magazine and, with his prize money, he bought and presented to the society the ‘Oscar Paulson Cup’, to be awarded in annual competition for the most entertaining act. We still hold this competition to this day.
John Bull may have closed in 1960, but even so, Long Live John Bull!
Find out more: John Bull magazine history
>>A History of British Magazine Design by Anthony Quinn (May 2016)
Magforum blog 
November 19, 2015 at 4:03 pm |
My father once won the competition with :
“He’s an American citizen so –
Hark at the twang as he draws the longbow”
No idea what year! Have lost original telegram of notification.
April 24, 2016 at 12:39 am |
Two that I remember:-
1 Garden of peace – Preserved by international trust. (My Fathe’rs)
2 Let bygones be – Rissoles (Uknown)
November 15, 2016 at 11:55 pm |
Your Dad’s Garden of peace is in the Dictionary of Bullets, alongside 4 other Bullets – so it was probably published in the years 1930-35. The composers are not credited but the book claims that £620,000 had been given out in prize money since it started in October 1912.
May 1, 2016 at 5:43 pm |
[…] were popular as puzzles in British magazines from the Victorian era. My pet theory is that the ‘Bullets’ prize puzzles in the weekly John Bull – the best-selling magazine from about 1910 to 1930 – created a […]
June 13, 2016 at 11:27 am |
[…] the printers Odhams. The magazine, with its belligerent stance, championing of the common man and prize competitions – including Bullets, which was akin to coming up with cryptic crossword clues – became incredibly successful once […]
November 15, 2016 at 6:56 pm |
Somewhere, I have a collection of notes made by my grandfather and some of his winning certificates.
In 1932, he won £500 and bought a house with it!
November 16, 2016 at 12:07 am |
In pure inflation terms, £500 then equates to about £30,000 today. However, if he bought a house with it, I’ll bet the property is worth a sight more than that today. The dictionary lists all the Bullets that won 500 guineas or more (that was the big prize or £500 and £1 a week for life). The max paid out was £1,000 plus a family world tour and £5 a week for life! Do you know what the entry was?
November 18, 2016 at 11:25 am |
The house has since been extended but the original would be worth arounf £350,000 today. I’ll try and find the certificate and the entry that won.
November 18, 2016 at 11:42 am |
My grandfather’s winning entry was in competition 991:
Good Book
Life, Dedicated to Friendless
I’ve never understood the “Bullets” competition. I obviously didn’t inherit his brains.
Sadly, I didn’t inherit his house either!
February 8, 2018 at 6:17 pm |
Bullet winners 1940 41 42 43 44 45 please
February 12, 2018 at 8:54 pm |
my grandfather, ernest morrison of north shields won 1000 pounds before 1924 in bullets, he bought a house at 56 queen alexander road west, north shields with his winnings.
In 1924 he also acted as an agent for bullets asking people to send a self addressed envelope to him with a shilling to enter, see advertisment in the shields news, under e. e. morrison
June 6, 2018 at 5:51 pm |
My late Father Geo Gibson won 500 pounds +a television in 1954/55 for a bullet .babies world atoms immeasurable.This was a lot of money in those days.
February 7, 2020 at 7:52 am |
Don’t know if anyone can help…. We have a neighbour in his nineties – he tells the story of his father winning a Millionaire’s Christmas competition in the John Bull Magazine (Christmas 1935). He says it was won by entering a caption, but he can’t recall what the caption was. It would be wonderful to find out more, or even be able to find a copy of the notification of his father’s win. There were 50 Christmas hampers as prizes – he claims it was his best Christmas ever!
October 6, 2020 at 8:09 pm |
My father won in 1939 which paid for our first holiday ever and last before the war started. I would love to find the John Bull magazine in which he won. How would I go about it?
October 14, 2020 at 12:53 pm |
Hello Jeanne, I’ve done a post about this. Hope it helps.
https://magforum.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/how-can-i-track-down-a-john-bull-bullets-winner/
October 14, 2020 at 12:54 pm |
[…] Giblett) wants to track down a copy of the issue of John Bull magazine in which her father won the Bullets prize competition. She […]
October 26, 2020 at 2:04 pm |
Hello Jeanne, I’ve done a post on this. Hope it helps!
https://magforum.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/how-can-i-track-down-a-john-bull-bullets-winner/
October 5, 2022 at 8:36 pm |
My father in law had a set of 3 White Horse Whiskey ornaments in the 1930s
which we believe he won in a Bullet competition. Is it possible to find out more. He was an avid reader of The Bullett.
Regards Bob Mears.