A “Scottish institution” celebrated its 90th birthday this week by looking back at its first edition.

The Sunday Post, owned by DC Thomson, originally started life in October 1914 as The Post Sunday Special – an edition of Saturday title The Post – to carry listings of soldiers who perished during the First World War.

Shortly after the declaration of peace, the first ever Sunday Post appeared in shops on 19 January 1919.

To celebrate the landmark birthday The Sunday Post this week carried three pages of nostalgia, stories about the origins of paper and comments from fans such as Sean Connery, Gordon Brown and Alex Salmond.

Editor David Pollington said: “It was extremely well received by readers and it’s been really interesting to take a trip down memory lane.

“It’s absolutely fascinating to look back at the language and even the adverts they used.

“The paper’s a Scottish institution and held in very high regard and we get a lot of people wanting to look back at the old files.

“A lot of our readers have stuck with us over the years.”

Front page of the first Sunday Post from 1919
Pic: The Sunday Post

The first ever edition had 16 pages, a few photos, no colour and very small text.

Among the stories on the front page, which was dominated by post-war news, was the tale of a Glasgow police officer shot by an “alleged burglar” while on the beat. It was described as a “dastardly outrage”.

Inside the edition there were reports of Scotland’s victory week which raised over £15m by selling war saving certificates while the prevalence of sugar stealing in Greenock was also high on the news agenda.

The paper’s adverts focussed on health and well-being including one for a lotion which promised to get rid of superfluous hair and another offering tablets to enable people to sleep through indigestion.

There was also the news of four divorces in Scotland’s courts that week including the tale of a man who had been “misconducting” himself with the housemaid.

Some things never change though has theatre listings showed that Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood were all on at various venues.

How the Sunday Post covered the landmark birthday