James ‘Buff’ Halley, who edited The Victor boys’ paper for 28 years, has died aged 90.
Under his stewardship, The Victor became one of the most successful children’s publications in Britain, selling around 400,000 copies a week during its peak years.
Buff was at the helm of the DC Thomson publication from 1964 until its closure in 1992, when he “put the paper to bed” and retired from journalism.
He was the custodian of some of the best-loved characters of the age including Tough of the Track, Alf Tupper.
While Buff had a team of writers and artists working for him, he was known to create his own storylines, sometimes drawing on his family’s experiences for inspiration.
He was born in Dundee in January 1933 to James Halley, a merchant seaman who later worked with General Electric and his wife, Helen Allan.
Buff grew up with siblings Alan, later editor of Mandy and deputy editor of The Scots Magazine, the late Bob, Sheila and Christine.
He was educated at Ancrum Road Primary and then Harris Academy where he excelled at football and played for the FPs well into his 30s.
When he left school, Buff had a short spell working with the Inland Revenue before being called up for National Service with the Royal Navy as a ship’s writer.
Publishing career begins
On his return to civilian life, he joined DC Thomson as a sub-editor on The Hotspur before joining The Victor as chief sub-editor.
In 1964 he was appointed editor of The Victor, a post he held until his retiral aged 60 and the publication’s closure.
He had met his future wife Joyce, playing at the DC Thomson badminton club. They married in Broughty Ferry in 1961 and went on to have four of a family: Donald, Duncan, Alison and Aileen, and five grandchildren, Eilidh, Angus, Roy, Davie and Ali.
Despite being the guardian of such a treasured publication, Buff remained modest about the role he played, said one of his children, Duncan.
“He was modest but I do remember at a wedding reception some of the guests from the groom’s side starting talking about Victor characters and found out that someone on our side had been the editor. They came over to lionise him which, of course, he greatly appreciated,” said Duncan.
“Dad came up with some of the storylines himself, though mainly it was professional writers/artists.
“I remember one Alf Tupper story, about egg stealing from osprey nests where Alf detected the villain by his unusual running style, was developed from my describing of my work as an osprey volunteer at Loch Garten in the 1980s.
Alison remembers him ruminating on some Matt Braddock storylines, and bringing home text stories that would then be broken down into script and picture notes for the artists to draw up.
In the early years of retirement, Buff and Joyce undertook a lot of worldwide travel and walking. Both were active in Harris Tennis Club, and latterly the West End Tennis club, both playing well into their 80s.
He also played golf, learnt French in later life, enjoyed Friday night pub meetings with his friends and serve as beadle at the High Kirk.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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