George Trapps was born in Holborn, London, in the second quarter of 1856, son of George Trapps senior, an ostler, and his wife Eliza. By 1881 he was married and working as a newsagent. In 1890 he and George Holmes founded the publishing firm Trapps Holmes and Company as a rival to Alfred Harmsworth's publishing ventures - one of their first publications was Funny Cuts, a response to Harmsworth's Comic Cuts. They published about a dozen comics and story papers, and also appear to have published newspapers. The partnership between Trapps and Holmes was dissolved in 1908, after which Trapps continued the business on his own, although he must have diversified his business interests as he's listed as an estate agent in the 1911 census. After the First World War the company fell into debt and was taken over by the Amalgamated Press. Trapps died in Thanet, Kent, in the first quarter of 1920.
References[]
- Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, pp. 166-167
- The London Gazette, 27 July 1909, p 5759