Gem Comics

THE GEM, for those of you not familiar with that pre-ww2 icon of the British Empire juvenile world, was a story paper similar to THE MAGNET and survived 1711 issues. It featured throughout the years stories of St James College in Sussex - more commonly known as St Jim's to its scholars - and in particular the adventures of the Fourth and Shell forms.

There were two houses, the School House and the New House. The main characters were the 'Terrible Three' - Merry, Manners and Lowther from the Shell; Blake, D'Arcy, Herries and Digby from the School House Fourth; Figgins, Kerr and 'Fatty' Wynn from the New House Fourth. It should be mentioned that the latter two groups were combined for certain classes. These boys would all have been around 15 years of age.