The Commonwealth Sentinel, advertised on billboards as 'Britain's most fearless newspaper', opened on February 6, 1965... and closed on February the 7'th.
The paper, designed to cater to all Commonwealth citizens, was created by Mr. Lionel Burleigh in London. For a week, he ran himself to exhaustion, collecting advertisements, writing all the stories, and over-seeing the first issue through the press. Then, relaxing with a well-deserved cuppa, Mr. Burleigh received a disturbing telephone call from the police.
"Are you anything to do with the Commonwealth Sentinel?" asked the harried constable while trying to calm a frantic hotel porter. "Because there are 50,000 of them outside the entrance to Brown's Hotel and they're blocking Albemarle Street."
In all his haste to 'get his baby on the road', Mr. Burleigh had totally forgotten to "arrange any distribution and they were just dumped outside the hotel where I was staying. To my knowledge, we only sold one copy. I still have the shilling in my drawer."
The single newspaper was sold by Mr. Burleigh's daughter to a passer-by. Such was the excitement of the transaction that a photograph was taken to commemorate the occasion.
