Wally Fawkes | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait with his most famous creation,Flook | |
| Born | Walter Ernest Pearsall (1924-06-21)21 June 1924 Vancouver, Canada |
| Died | 1 March 2023(2023-03-01) (aged 98) London, England |
| Other names | Trog |
| Occupations | |
| Notable work | Flook |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6 |
Walter Ernest Fawkes (né Pearsall; 21 June 1924 – 1 March 2023), also known asTrog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-Britishjazz clarinettist andsatirical cartoonist.
After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old,[1] hetaught himself the clarinet, and first joined arevivalist jazz band withGeorge Webb in 1944.[2] He later created a new, more mainstream band with friendHumphrey Lyttelton, and it soon became one of the leading British jazz bands of the 1950s.[3]
Fawkes also achieved success illustrating cartoons under the pen name"Trog". His most notable work in this business wasFlook, a comic strip which ran inThe Daily Mail newspaper from 1949 to 1984. Initially aimed at children, the strip evolved over time into a gentle satire of British politics. WhenFlook ended he continued to illustrate until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005 at age 81,[1] leaving him to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing.[4]
Fawkes was born on 21 June 1924,[5] as Walter Ernest[6] Pearsall[7] inVancouver,British Columbia.[5][4] His father, Douglas Pearsall, was a Canadian railwayclerk whom his mother, Mabel (née Ainsley), later left for Charles Fawkes, a British printer. Mabel took her children with Charles to Britain in 1931.[7]
Enthused by comic books from a young age, Fawkes left school at 14 with a scholarship to study at Sidcup Art School,[2] although he later left after 18 months due to financial restraints.[3] On the outbreak of theSecond World War, Fawkes was first employed painting camouflage on factory roofs to hide them from enemy bombing.[3] A bout ofpleurisy made Fawkes unfit for service and he was instead employed by theCoal Commission to work on maps of coal seams.[3]
It was during the war years that Fawkes began playing in jazz bands.In 1947, he took a weekly course at theCamberwell School of Art[3] in London where he met future friendsHumphrey Lyttelton andFrancis Wilford-Smith. Lyttelton would become a long-lasting close friend.[3] Fawkes later joinedGeorge Webb'sDixielanders, a semi-professionalrevivalist jazz band that featured Lyttelton on trumpet, in 1944.[2] When Lyttelton left the Dixielanders in January 1948 to form his own jazz band, Fawkes went with him and stayed there until 1956,[5][8] by which time it had evolved past revivalism and became more mainstream.[3] This suited Fawkes, as his own bands from then on could be broadly described as mainstream.[4] He re-united with Lyttelton periodically thereafter, and, though highly talented on his instrument, remained (in the broadest sense of the term) an "amateur".[4] He based his style on that of American jazz composerSidney Bechet[2] and once recorded with him andLouis Armstrong,[9] as part of Lyttelton's band, in 1949.[6][10] He played withGeorge Melly andJohn Chilton in the Feetwarmers band in the early 1970s.[11] After giving up illustrating in 2005, Fawkes continued to play in various bands, with one of his last performances being held in 2011.[12]
Of all his talents, there is none I admire more than his outstanding skill as a caricaturist. Very few artists can see a likeness the way he can, and catch it so completely. He doesn't develop a hieroglyph for each politician and then simply reach for it each time it is needed. Every Trog caricature is carefully recrafted.
In 1942, he entered an art competition that was judged by theDaily Mail's chief cartoonistLeslie Illingworth, who found him work with theClement Davies advertising agency.[3] On Fawkes' 21st birthday in 1945,[8][3][2] Illingworth found Fawkes work at theDaily Mail drawing column-breaks and decorative illustrations.[3] He signed the drawings asTrog, which was short forTroglodyte which came from his days fromWorld War II. He once joked that due to the amount of time spent in undergroundair-raid shelters people in London were becomingtroglodytes.[3] Fawkes was later inspired by this to adopt "Trog" as his pen-name.
In 1949, Fawkes's comic stripFlook first appeared in theDaily Mail, and was a success.[13] It featured the unlikely and satirical adventures of its small and furryeponymous hero.[3] Fawkes's role on theMail was chiefly as illustrator, and he had a strong team of collaborators on the scripts forFlook over the years, includingGeorge Melly,Barry Norman,Humphrey Lyttelton andBarry Took.Flook ran for 35 years in theDaily Mail until its sudden cancellation in 1984.Margaret Thatcher once said that it was "quite the best commentary of the politics of the day".[1] When the news broke that Fawkes was leaving theMail he was signed up byRobert Maxwell, who in July 1984 had bought theDaily Mirror, from where Fawkes tookFlook. It then transferred briefly to theSunday Mirror before being dropped completely.[1][3]
Fawkes also produced political cartoons forThe Spectator with George Melly as his author.[5] The two also contributed occasionally toPrivate Eye and, beginning in 1962, to theNew Statesman. Despite producing larger political cartoons for theDaily Mail, his future role as Illingworth's successor as lead cartoonist was threatened by the paper's preference for the work ofGerald Scarfe. Fawkes therefore began submitting work to other publications, and he began contributing political cartoons toThe Observer. AtThe Observer he fell foul of the readership when readers complained that some of his cartoons about the British royalty were "grossly discourteous tothe Queen".[3] In 1967 Scarfe left theMail and Fawkes' position at the paper became more secure, and in 1968 he stopped writing forThe Observer to focus solely on theMail.[3]
Fawkes became theDaily Mail's political cartoonist when Illingworth retired in 1969. That year he also replaced Illingworth as political cartoonist ofPunch. In 1971, theDaily Mail absorbed theDaily Sketch, and the role of transforming the old paper from a broadsheet into a tabloid fell to the oldSketch editor SirDavid English,[3] who gave the role of political cartoonist toStan McMurtry and Fawkes was dropped from his old role.[3] Fawkes returned toThe Observer in 1971 and continued to work forPunch. AfterFlook was cancelled in 1985, Fawkes worked briefly forToday and then served a short stint at theLondon Daily News. During the 1980s he continued to contribute toPunch andPrivate Eye, and forThe Observer he drew a pocket cartoon named "mini-Trog". In 1996 he leftThe Observer and joinedThe Sunday Telegraph, where he remained until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005.[1]
In 2013 his work was celebrated with an exhibition at theCartoon Museum of London.[14]
In 1949 Fawkes married the journalistSandy Fawkes, who later became known for surviving an affair with the American serial killerPaul John Knowles.[15] They had four children together,[10] one of whom died ofSIDS (cot death).[15] In 1965, he married Susan Clifford – daughter of the Australian composerHubert Clifford – and they had two children.[4][10]
Fawkes died in London on 1 March 2023, at age 98, following a short illness.[16][10]
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