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Last updated 21/4/2025

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Alfred Edmeades Bestall, MBE, was born in Mandalay, Burma on 14 December 1892 and died in Porthmadog, Wales on 15 January 1986.(2)

The information in the Chronology is drawn from the sources listed at the foot of this page and from the individual Rupert Annuals published between 1946 and 1973 to which Bestall contributed. Many of the illustrations on this page and on the source pages relating to the individual annuals (see links in the text) were kindly sourced by Michel Grand.

Most of the designs that Bestall included in the Rupert annuals were traditional designs. A few, however, are clearly attributed to other known paperfolders. A further few are neither attributed or previously known from any other source and it is therefore possible, indeed likely, that these were Bestall's own original designs. These designs are:

From 1956 - 'The Spill Holder' and 'The Spark Man'

From 1959 - 'The Paper Bird'

From 1962 - 'Twin Fuselage Plane' (variation of The Dove)

From 1965 - 'The Fireside Seat'

From 1968 - 'Flying Fish'

From 1970 - 'Rupert's Paper Lightship' and 'Rupert's Mystery Bird' (a variation of The Duck)

From 1972 - 'The Imp's Lantern' and 'A Cave Hopper'

From 1973 - 'Rupert's Salad Plate'

Bestall does not generally use the word 'origami' to refer to paperfolding, the only instance I am aware of being from 1969 where he refers to 'Mr Robert Harbin, the Origami man'.

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Chronology

1892

Born in Mandalay, Burma on 14 December 1892 (2)

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1905

Bestall's interest in paperfolding began when he was given a copy of 'The Book of Indoor Games' by J K Benson, which included several paperfolding items (1).

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1935

In 1935 Bestall began writing and drawing the Rupert Bear cartoon strip in The Daily Express (1).

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1946

Bestall introduced paperfolding into the Rupert Bear Annual for the first time. The 1946 Rupert Annual (published as 'The New Rupert Book') included diagrams for the Flapping Bird and the Paper Dart.

According to David Lister (3) 'The Rupert Annual was one of the only children's annuals to survive the War, but when it ended in 1945, it was thought that many new annuals would be introduced and that the Rupert Annual would face competition. It was decided to improve the attraction of the annuals by the introduction of other features, such as games and colouring pages. Alfred Bestall hit upon the idea of including paperfolding.'

This annual also contained a story 'Rupert on Coon Island' which has been the subject of controversy regarding the portrayal of the black characters.

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1947

The 1947 Rupert annual, 'More Adventures of Rupert', contained a story featuring, and folding instructions for the Kettle.

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1948

The 1948 Rupert annual, 'The Rupert Book', contains a story featuring a 'hobby-horse' (ie the Cocotte) and diagrams explaining how to fold it. Bestall probably invented the name 'hobby-horse' for this design.

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1949

The 1949 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story featuring 'Rupert's Boat' (ie The Chinese Junk) and diagrams explaining how to fold it.

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1950

The 1950 Rupert annual, 'Adventures of Rupert' contains a story about 'Rupert and the Paper Plane' (ie The Swallow) and instructions showing how to fold it.

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1951

The 1951 Rupert annual, 'The New Rupert Book', contains a story titled 'Rupert and the Lucky Man' and instructions for making the 'lucky man' titled 'How to Make Rupert's Paper Man'. The Paper man is made by combining The Suit of Clothes with The Mitre (to form the head) and a Paper Boat Hat.

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1952

The 1952 Rupert annual, 'More Rupert Adventures', contains a story titled 'Rupert and the Elephants' and diagrams explaining 'How to make a Paper Elephant', the design in question being the heavily cut Spanish Elephant.

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1953

Bestall and Robert Harbin first met at the Daily Express offices on 12th June 1953 (1).

The 1953 Rupert annual, 'More Adventures of Rupert', contains two sets of folding instructions, 'How to Make a Paper Snapper' (ie The (Cut) Paper Snapper) and 'How to make a Paper Ball' (ie The Slit and Assemble Sphere).

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1954

The 1954 Rupert annual, 'The New Rupert', contains:

A story titled 'Rupert and the Friendly Sea-Lion' and accompanying folding instructions 'How to Make a Paper Sea-Lion and Penguin' (The Fish Base Seal and The Fish Base Penguin - both in cut versions)

A story titled 'Rupert and the Castaway' and accompanying folding instructions 'How to Make a Paper Canoe' (The Blunt-Ended Boat and a Canoe i.e. a non-blunt-ended version).

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1955

The 1955 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains:

A story titled 'Rupert and Poll Parrot' and accompanying folding instructions 'How to make a Cat's Head' (The Wild Man from Borneo).

A story titled 'Rupert and the Unknown Journey' and accompanying folding instructions 'How to make a Paper work-Basket' (The Sanbo on Legs).

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1956

The 1956 Rupert annual, 'The Rupert Book', contains folding instructions for two related designs 'The Spill Holder' and 'The Spark Man' which appear in the story 'Rupert and the Blue Moon' (although the spill holder is ceramic not paper). Neither of these designs are known from any other source so they are probably Bestall's own original designs.

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1957

The 1957 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains folding instructions titled 'How to make Rupert's Folded Paper Glider' (a version of the Dove) and a story titled 'Rupert and the Cracker Jack' which features the design.

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1958

The 1958 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Water Lily' and two sets of folding instructions for designs mentioned in the story, 'How to Make Rupert's Paper Water Lily' (ie The Lotus) and 'How to Make Rupert's Frog by Folding a Sheet of Paper' (ie The Inflatable Frog), although in this case the design is treated as a jumping frog and there is no mention that it can be inflated.

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1959

The 1959 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Copper Bird' and folding instructions showing 'How to make Rupert's Paper Bird' (a paper version of the copper bird featured in the story) and 'Rupert's Gay Party Cap' (a version of The Kabuto). The paper bird is otherwise unknown and so probably an original design by Alfred Bestall.

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1960

The 1960 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Crystal' and folding instructions for 'Rupert's Donkey' (ie the Donkey with Panniers) which appears in that story. It also contains folding instructions for a simple folded paper frame to frame the 'magic paintings' which the annual also contains.

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1961

The 1961 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a frontispiece explaining 'The Conjuror's Paper Chain' (ie The Afghan Bands). It also contains a story 'Rupert and the Hearth Rug' and a section titled 'How to Make Rupert's Hearth Rug', a copy of which I have not managed to locate. This 'hearth rug' may, or may not, be a paperfolding design.

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1962

The 1962 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Dragon Fly', which features a twin-fuselage plane, and folding instructions for making a similar looking plane from paper (another heavily cut version of the Dove). This version of the design is not known elsewhere and is therefore probably an invention of Alfred Bestall.

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1963

The 1963 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Birthday Present', which features a kangaroo, and folding instructions for 'A Paper Kangaroo' (a cut design) attributed to 'Mr Clem Smith of Melbourne, who is studying to be a doctor'. The work also contains instructions for making 'Rupert's Toy Camera', although this is a cardboard modelling rather than a pure paperfolding design.

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1964

The 1964 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story titled ' Rupert and the Dover Sole' which includes reference to butterflies and stars. It also contains instructions for how to fold 'A Paper Butterfly' (ie Yoshizawa's Butterfly) and how to fold and cut out 'Rupert's Magic Star' (ie the Fold and One Cut Pentagram).

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1965

Bestall produced his last daily Rupert story on 22 July 1965 (2) but continued to contribute to the Annuals, producing the covers and end-papers, creating the puzzles and drawing the diagrams for the paperfolding (4).

The 1965 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains a story 'Rupert and the Gaffer' which features a fireside seat and a note-case. Instructions for making both these items are also included. 'Rupert's Note Case' is the Chinese Wallet. 'Rupert's Paper Model of a Fireside Seat' is otherwise unknown, and no attribution is given. It may therefore well be a design of Alfred Bestall's own invention.

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1966

The 1966 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains folding instructions titled 'How to make Sara's Dolls-House Furniture', which, unusually, are not connected with one particular story within the work but have a more general connection to several other Rupert stories featuring 'Rupert's friend Sara' as explained here:

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1967

The 1967 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains diagrams for 'Rupert's Hare or Rabbit' which is not connected with any particular story within the work, but which was submitted by a reader, Mr R Shipp.

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1968

The 1968 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains folding instructions for 'Rupert's Flying Fish' and 'A Paper Lily' (ie The Lily). Both of these designs feature in the front endpaper, the lilies at bottom left and the flying fish towards the right edge. As far as I know these designs do not feature in any of the stories in this work. Since the flying fish unattributred and is not otherwise known otherwise it is likely that it is Alfred Bestall's own design.

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1969

The 1969 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains folding instructions for two designs, a Christmas Tree and 'A Paper Pagoda'. The Pagoda is said to be a 'traditional Japanese paper-fold' while the Christmas Tree is attributed to 'Mr Robert Harbin, the Origami man'.

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1970

The 1970 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains two sets of folding instructions, for 'Rupert's Paper Lightship' and 'Rupert's Mystery Bird'. The Lightship is a three part design, of which the third part. the light, is a Waterbomb. The final part of the instructions suggest that the design can be made from a single strip of paper. Since neither design is known from any other source, or attributed to any other paperfolder, it seems likely that these designs are by Alfred Bestall.

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1971

The 1971 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert' contains folding instructions for two designs, 'The Hobgomnie', featured in the story 'Rupert and the Gomnies', and 'Rupert's Swimming Bird', featured in 'Rupert and the Early Bird', both of which are developed from the Cocotte, probably by Alfred Bestall himself, since they are not otherwise known or attributed. The 'Swimming Bird' is a development / variant of The Duck.

The instructions for the 'Hobgomnie' say of the Cocotte design: 'It is generally called 'the hobby-horse' (American folders call it 'the chicken'). The instructions for 'Rupert's Swimming Bird' say: '... follow instructions ... to make a Hobby-Horse'.

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1972

The 1972 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert, 1972', contains folding instructions for 'The Imp's Lantern', shown in 'Rupert and the Learner', and 'A Cave Hopper', a paper version of a creature that features in the story 'Rupert and Gwyneth'. Neither of these designs is otherwise known and so they are probably designs of Alfred Bestall's own devising.

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1973

According to David Lister (4) 'For some reason, Rupert's head in the stories in the annuals was left uncoloured, although the covers always showed him with a brown teddy bear coloured head. So Alfred painted him for the 1973 Annual.' Unfortunately someone at Express Newspapers thought this was a mistake and decided to correct it. David Lister goes on, 'The change from brown to white was made without consulting Bestall. Alfred Bestall was a very mild-mannered man, but he was furious and considered that his artistic integrity and artistic independence had been impugned. From then onwards he gave up his connection with the Rupert Annuals and the Daily Express.'

The 1973 Rupert annual, just titled 'Rupert', contains folding instructions for 'Rupert's Salad Plate'. This design is not attributed to any other paperfolder and as far as I know it is not traditional. It is probably therefore a design by Alfred Bestall himself.

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1985

Awarded the MBE (2).

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1986

Died in Porthmadog, Wales on 15 January 1986.(2)

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Sources

(1) 'The History of Paperfolding in Britain' by David Lister, which was published by the British Origami Society in 1975.

(2) Alfred Bestall - Wikipedia

(3) Rupert Bear - an article by David Lister published on the Lister List.

(4) Rupert Bear 2 - an article by David Lister published on the Lister List.

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