John Player and the RN

John Player and the Royal Navy

Well at least from 1956

Written by Godfrey Dykes

© RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

Did you sign one of these? This page comes from my paybook of 1960 which is a replacement paybook marked "fair wear and tear re-issue". Clearly, I did. In my tool box I have five tins (for screws etc) marked tobacco for personal use, do not etc etc, the contents therein being roll your own duty free issue. We used to smoke 'blue liners' when based ashore, and 'HM Ships Only' proprietary cigarettes when based afloat - mind you it's nearly 40 years ago since a touched one. Whilst the first two sources of baccy were largely unknown (they used to say that the contents of the blue liners were the sweepings from the deck after a days working making proprietary cigarettes) proprietary brands covered the whole spectrum of cigarette manufacturers both in tins (for self rolling and pipe) and in cardboard packets. One of the biggest proprietary companies was (and is) the John Player and Sons company, and I remember my dear father who looked forward to me coming home on leave bearing gifts, and particularly his favourite Capstan full strength (without filter tips], which today, would be classified as 'darn right dangerous', puffing away on 40 a day. I really should have known better! What follows is the John Player and Sons version of their association with the Navy, loosely, or otherwise.

The Players Sailor

Contrary to popular belief, the sailor's head does not represent any particular individual, but was simply an artist's conception for an advertising design and later used for the trade mark in 1891. Contrast that with this HMS CHEVIOT where the sailor's head was of a known serving sailor.
Originally the sailor had only one stripe on his collar. Later two stripes were introduced and these remain to the present day. The correct number is three. But as the design was registered with only two, legal advice was sought, and it was decided that no alterations should be made.

The Three-Decker is HMS Britannia

For more than a hundred years before 1953, seamen in the Royal Navy were allowed to buy tobacco leaf duty-free. They formed this into a roll and pressed it by coiling a thin rope tightly round it. When they wanted a smoke, they unwound the rope a turn and sliced off a pipeful or pressing plug. Pressing and slicing is still the basic process used for Player's Navy Cut Pipe Tobacco today. When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, HMS Britannia was one of the biggest ships of the line. She was a wooden three-decker, carried 120 guns, could sail 9 knots in a fair wind and in fact was not very different from Nelson's ships of the line. HMS Britannia, HMS Hero (on the right of the sailors head) and the sailor himself were formed into the current Player's Trade Mark in 1891 (see the picture in the main logo above}.

The Player's Sailor's Ship is referred to in his cap-ribbon. She was HMS Hero, a Cruiser, built in 1885. Two ten-inch guns. Two six-inch guns. Twelve small quick-firing guns. Follow the sailors nose and you'll see her. "The battleship HMS Hero was launched 27th October 1885, she differed from HMS Conqueror only in that all four of her 6 inch guns were mounted on the superstructure. At the end of Hero's career it was used as a target from November 1907 and was finally sunk off the Kentish Knock on 18th February 1908."

A Curious Error on the Sailor's Cap-Ribbon

If you look, you'll see that the ship's name 'Hero' on the sailor's cap-ribbon appears without the letters HMS. The reason for the omission is that they were forgotten in the original drawing, and since the Trade Mark was registered without the letters, it was never possible to add them. As a matter of interest, there have been three ships in the Royal Navy named Hero.

This picture, regrettably of poor quality, shows some of the advertising captions used by John Player featuring sailors and the Navy. Note particularly the sailor with his back to us and the caption saying "turn your back on all but players".

In 1980, the Captain of HMS Excellent Captain R K S Bethell OBE FBIM Royal Navy, published a booklet to commemorate 150 years of his establishment from 1830. In it he put the Royal Navy's side of the story, and supported it with this picture

The following is a re-typed extract of what Captain Bethell said:

THE ROYAL NAVY AND JOHN PLAYER AND SONS

In the minds of most people the link between the Royal Navy and the tobacco firm of John Player and Sons was an accepted thought for upwards of seven decades, but in truth, until 1956, there had never been any concrete association. No doubt the supposed link was foreseen by two things – firstly, the use of the generic term ‘Navy Cut’ from the first days of manufacture by John Player, a term which arises from the sailors’ custom of slicing thin flakes of tobacco as required from a cord-bound, rum-soaked perique, prepared over many weeks to maturity.

Secondly, and by far the more likely factor, was the introduction of the famous sailor head trademark in 1885. In that year John Player chanced upon a canvas of a boarded sailor, painted by a man named Wright of Clapham many years before. It was being used by the small tobacco company of Parkins of Chester to advertise their ‘Jack’s Glory’ tobacco. Players bought and immediately registered the painting as a trademark adding the lifebelt in 1888 and the two ships ‘BRITANNIA’ and ‘HERO’ in 1891.

During these early years many variations of background and frame appeared, including one of a boy seaman in lieu of our bearded friend and one of the back of the sailor’s head within the lifebelt.

In 1927, A.D. McCORMICK RA, was commissioned to produce the final version in use to-day, using ‘HERO’ as the cap tally (the lack of HMS is an artist’s error, irretrievable after registration) for use on packaging.

For advertising purposes ‘INVINCIBLE’ was used up to 1916, when the name was dropped as likely to give offence to relatives of the dead of the cruiser of that name lost at the Battle of Jutland, and it was replaced by ‘EXCELLENT’, equally splendid for the purpose.

In 1956, the John Player management for the first time forged an actual link with ‘The Service’ by inviting a football team from the Gunnery School to play the firm on their Aspley Lane ground in Nottingham and since the November of that year football, cricket and ladies hockey teams have made annual visits to each other’s grounds.

For many years Nottingham has proved to be a prime recruiting centre for the Royal Navy, with a long tradition of distinguished service. Although the association between John Player of Nottingham and the Royal Navy was for so long merely supposition, and now established fact.

With the launch of the latest HMS NOTTINGHAM on 18 February last, the ties between the City, its industry and the Royal Navy can only be made stronger.

This is the Nottingham referred to, D91, having a piggy-back-ride back to Portsmouth from Australian waters

How are these for prices? e.g., Duty Paid In decorated tins of 50 = 2s 3d (11¼p): On HM Ships = 1s 6d (7½p)

From an auctioneer's magazine - recognise him? - he's the friendly, weather-beaten sailor who has been the logo on millions of packets of Player's Navy Cut cigarettes since 1927. This oil painting by Arthur McCormick (1860-1943) is estimated to fetch £7,000-£10,000 in Bonham's maritime sale in New Bond Street on Thursday 15 August 2004 (11am and 6pm, lot 450 of 454 lots). It was the basis for one of the most successful and enduring advertising images of all time.

The cigarette packets, framed within a life belt, the sailor is gazing out to sea and has 'Hero' on his cap, not the 'Invincible' of the painting. HMS Invincible, one of the fast, much-vaunted battlecruisers of the post-Dreadnought era, was sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, with heavy loss of life - a fact that Imperial Tobacco chose not to point out to customers used to equating tobacco and the glamour of the Navy.

The sailor has travelled more in the past year than at any time during his decades in the WD & HO Wills collection of tobacco memorabilia. Imperial Tobacco dispersed the collection this year, to auction houses and museums in Bristol and Nottingham. McCormick's painting is a museum piece if ever there was one, but it was consigned to the Bristol auction rooms in May, where a canny private collector bought it for £3,335 against an estimate of £2,000-£3,000. And thence to Bonhams, where, three months later, the trophy is expected to top £10,000.