Frank S Pepper

Who was Frank S Pepper?

Frank Stuart Pepper was a British writer of comics and story papers for Amalgamated Press, best known as the creator of "Roy of the Rovers" and "Captain Condor".

Born in Ilford, North East London, on 8 February 1910, on leaving school he joined the staff of The Children's Newspaper as an office boy in 1926, under editor Arthur Mee. He started by writing captions, then longer pieces, and by 1930 was selling articles to other papers on a freelance basis. He went freelance full-time in 1931, writing for numerous newspapers and magazines.

In the mid-1930s he started selling stories to the boys' story papers, his first story being "Snapshot Sammy" for The Triumph. Editor Reg Eves commissioned him to write a series about a boxing airman, "Rockfist Rogan", for The Champion in 1937, which he went on to write, under the pseudonym Hal Wilton, for the next 22 years. Also for The Champion, he wrote football serial "Danny of the Dazzlers" under the pseudonym John Marshall, and "Colwyn Dane" as Mark Grimshaw. He also wrote "The Adventures of Beau Brummell" for Knockout and "The Return of Monte Cristo" for The Comet, as John Morion.