Introduction

Edward Wheeler Bird established a British-Israelist periodical – The Banner of Israel – which would remain the most widely circulated organ of the movement until the 1920s. A short story entitled ‘Winifred Breaks Out’ appeared in The Guardian on 29 February 1932. It lampooned the phenomenon of British-Israelism as a familiar tendency, typical of elderly military veterans. From the 1890s up to the 1970s, high profile companies took out advertisements in British-Israelist publications. Bovril advertised in The Banner of Israel during the inter-war years, whilst Cow and Gate continued to advertise in The National Message into the 1960s. British-Israelism was visible to the British public, in the first instance, in the buildings that it occupied around the country. British-Israelists tended to revere the military, and military men seem to have been attracted to the message of British-Israelism in disproportionate numbers.