[1][2] It was founded in 1887 by Sam Cope (1856–1948) and acquired by The Salvation Army in 2004, before being sold in April 2015 to KGC Media Ltd., a company formed by the publication's then managing editor.
The magazine was printed monthly until circulation increased to weekly in 1902 after John Henry Iles purchased the publishing company Richard Smith & Co.[4][5] Production ceased for two weeks during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike in May 1926, and other than four editions that never appeared during Christmas closures in the 1970s, plus a period from September 1975 to September 1976 when it was published fortnightly, the magazine appeared weekly until 1 October 2016, when it was announced that it was to become a monthly publication.
In September 2018, British Bandsman was bought by IBB Media Ltd and it was announced that it was to become an online publication, in addition to returning to being weekly.
On June 9, 2022, the last issue of The British Bandsman Magazine was published, the British Bandsman name will continue as online only, Rob Tompkins purchased the Domain name, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts from IBB Media and will continue bringing banding news.
The ownership of the magazine title and the archive of The British Bandsman issues has now been sold to Rob Tompkins (May 2024), this also includes a number of items from the photographic archive.