Launched in 1903 as a protégé of The Graphic, The Bystander was a weekly satirical magazine designed to look at the ‘lighter side of life’. Established by George Thoms Holt, son of The Graphic founder William Luson Thomas, the humorous and opinionated magazine was packed with political satire, topical drawings, illustrations, cartoons and short stories, along with reviews of sport, travel, motoring and society news, all carried out with a characteristic, tongue-in-cheek humour.

The Bystander was hugely popular during World War I for its publication of the Old Bill cartoons by humourist Bruce Bairnsfather. The magazine also employed many notable artists including H. M. Bateman, W. Heath Robinson, A K MacDonald, Howard Elcock, Helen McKie, Arthur Watts, Will Owen, Edmund Blampied and L. R. Brightwell. Many of Daphne Du Maurier’s early short stories were published in The Bystander as well as those of Saki, the pseudonym of author Hector Hugh Munro.

The Bystander ran for nearly 200 issues until it merged with its sister magazine The Tatler in 1940 to become The Tatler and Bystander.