Admittedly this may be a dead end, but here's a brief summary of the "BP & CO" stamp on british/canadian badges. According to it, the BP & CO stamp was once thought to be Bent & Parker but has since been re-identified as Bodill Parker & Company, Birmingham England. Good news they're still in business after 150 years; they make grommets, eyelits, and rings. I've attached their website below. I'd imagine they have record of manufacturing such a ring with specifics such as how many were made, date of delivery, etc... Probably not the newspaper article with photos you were looking for, but hope this helps.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/mak...arker_&_co.htm
http://www.bodill-parker.co.uk/home.aspx