Mr Punch in London Town VIII
Another record month for the blog, deep and humble thanks for your support. Let’s wrap it up with some more funnies from this series of early 20C cartoons from the New Punch Library. The blurb in the frontispiece says:
Presenting the cream of national humour contributed to “Punch” by our leading draughtsmen and humorous writers from the year 1900 to the present.
Re Philip Baynes:
Shrewsbury School Roll of Service 1914-1918
July 7, 1915 – Philip Heacock Baynes, Sergeant, 1st Rifle Brigade. He was Capt. of the Boats, and rowed in the crew of 1897, the first Eight to represent Shrewsbury against another school (and in which were six members who afterwards served in the South African War, three of whom have now passed away – viz., MARTEN, killed in action in South Africa; HALHED, fatally mauled by a lion in the Soudan; and BAYNES. He served with the Shropshire I.Y. in the Boer War, being offered a commission but declining it, and gaining the Medal with three Clasps. On returning from active service Baynes, as an artist “won a wide reputation and his strong fresh work was familiar in Punch” (Punch Roll of Honour, Oct. 6, 1915.) He enlisted in the Rifle Brigade as a Private, went to the front in October, 1914, was at first reported “missing,” but is now “believed to have been killed.”
Hi Stephen, thanks for that very interesting info on Baynes. I wish I had time to look more into the backgrounds of some of these fabulous cartoonists of yore. I know that Kenneth Bird “Fougasse” served and was wounded in WWI and went on to do lots of propaganda stuff in WWII, eventually becoming Punch editor, the first cartoonist to get the post.
Thanks Mike
I came across the info by chance in the course of researching an officer who served in the same battalion as my grandfather (Royal Irish Fusiliers)
All the best
Steve O’C