Captain Charles Bruce Bairnsfather (9 July 1887 –29 September 1959) was a prominent British humorist and cartoonist. His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill. Bill and his pals Bert and Alf featured in Bairnsfather's weekly "Fragments from France" cartoons published weekly in The Bystander magazine during the First World War.
Bairnsfather was born at Murree, British India (now Pakistan) to Major Thomas Henry Bairnsfather (1859–1944), of the Indian Staff Corps, and (Amelia) Jane Eliza, daughter of Edward Every-Clayton and granddaughter of Sir Henry Every, 9th Baronet. His parents were second cousins, both being great-grandchildren of Sir Edward Every, 8th Baronet. [1] [2]
Bairnsfather spent his early life in India, but was brought to England in 1895 to be educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho!, then at Stratford-upon-Avon. Initially intending a military career, he failed the entrance exams to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, so enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment.
He resigned in 1907 to become an artist, studying at the John Hassall School of Art. Unsuccessful at first, he worked as an electrical engineer. Working in this capacity for the Old Memorial Theatre, Stratford, brought him into acquaintance with Marie Corelli, who introduced him to Thomas Lipton, a connection that led to commissions to draw advertising sketches for Lipton tea, Player's cigarettes, Keen's Mustard, and Beecham's Pills.
In 1914, Bairnsfather was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant and served with a machine gun unit in France until 1915, when he was hospitalised with shell shock and hearing damage sustained during the Second Battle of Ypres. Posted to the 34th Division headquarters on Salisbury Plain, he developed his humorous series for the Bystander about life in the trenches, featuring "Old Bill", a curmudgeonly soldier with trademark walrus moustache and balaclava. The best remembered of these shows Bill with another trooper in a muddy shell hole with shells whizzing all around. The other trooper is grumbling and Bill advises:
Well, If you knows of a better 'ole, go to it.
Many of his cartoons from this period were collected in Fragments From France (1914) and the autobiographical Bullets & Billets (1916). [3]
Despite Bairnsfather's immense popularity with the troops and a massive sales increase for the Bystander, initially there were objections to the "vulgar caricature". Nevertheless, success in raising morale led to Bairnsfather's promotion and receipt of a War Office appointment to draw similar cartoons for other Allied forces.
In 1921, Bairnsfather married Cecilia Agnes Scott (née Bruton). She was the divorced wife of eminent golfer Michael Scott.
"Old Bill" and Bairnsfather himself continued in popularity between the wars. Many police officers of the time had similar facial hair, and that may have led to British police being referred to as The Old Bill. The Bill was a British t.v. series which shortened the original commonly-used phrase.[ citation needed ] Bairnsfather was the subject of one of the first British sound films in 1927, wrote and directed the 1928 Canadian film Carry On Sergeant ,[ citation needed ] and took part in the early Alexandra Palace television transmissions in 1936. Old Bill appeared in numerous books, plays, musicals and films. Bairnsfather's autobiography, Wide Canvas, appeared in 1939. [4]
When the Second World War broke out, Bairnsfather continued Old Bill work, but was not asked to help with the British war effort. Instead, he became official cartoonist to the American forces in Europe, contributing to Stars and Stripes and Yank , whilst residing at Cresswell House in Clun, Shropshire. He also drew cartoons at American bases and nose art on aircraft. His works are considered to have influenced artists such as Bill Mauldin.
One famous cartoon that Bairnsfather drew shows Old Bill sitting in a trench with a big shell hole next to him from a near miss. Old Bill says to the men around him "Mice!" What the Germans thought of this cartoon was revealed in a British newspaper clipping from World War II. Quoting a Nazi textbook taken from a German prisoner of war that shows the cartoon, the clipping reads: "Obviously, the hole was not made by a mouse. It was made by a shell. There is no humor in this misstatement of facts. The man, Old Bill, was clearly mistaken in thinking a mouse had made it. People who can laugh at such mistakes are obviously not normal; therefore we should pay careful attention to their psychology. Their very decadence may prove to be a weapon of self-defense." [5]
During later life, Bairnsfather had found himself typecast as the creator of Old Bill. His Times obituary, discussing his career, came to the conclusion that he was "fortunate in possessing a talent ... which suited almost to the point of genius one particular moment and one particular set of circumstances; and he was unfortunate in that he was never able to adapt, at all happily, his talent to new times and new circumstances". [6] He died in 1959 aged 72 of complications from bladder cancer, in Worcester.
A commemorative blue plaque appears outside one of his old studios, 1 Sterling Street, Knightsbridge London ( 51°29′58″N0°10′01″W / 51.4995°N 0.16686°W ). [7] The blue plaque was initiated by Tonie and Valmai Holt who later wrote Bairnsfather's biography (In Search of the Better Ole – the Life, the Works and the Collectables of Bruce Bairnsfather) and also sponsored a memorial plaque to Bairnsfather on the cottage at St Yvon in Belgium at the edge of Plugstreet Wood where Bairnsfather drew his first 'trench' cartoons.
A plaque commemorating Bruce Bairnsfather was unveiled at his former home, Victoria Spa Lodge, Bishopton, Stratford upon Avon ( 52°12′18″N1°43′52″W / 52.205018°N 1.731122°W ) on 10 September 2005 by cartoonist Bill Tidy. [8] The plaque was instigated by Mark Warby, Editor of The Old Bill Newsletter, the official journal for Bairnsfather enthusiasts and collectors.
On 24 September 2011, a plaque commemorating Bruce Bairnsfather was unveiled on the wall of Colwall Royal British Legion Club in Crescent Road, Colwall, near Malvern in Worcestershire. The plaque was instigated by the Colwall Village Society and was unveiled by Mark Warby. Bairnsfather lived in Colwall from 1951 to 1954 and was well known at the British Legion Club in the village.
Bill & Alphie's, the Royal Military College of Canada's on-campus cadet pub in Kingston, Ontario is named after Bruce Bairnsfather's Great War cartoon characters. Yeo Hall at the College of Canada features sculptures of Bill and Alphie.
There is a large mural featuring "Old Bill" smoking amidst the ruins of a French village, drawn on the wall of the main staircase in the Royal British Legion Victory House Club in Ludlow, Shropshire. [9]
Sir David Alexander Cecil Low was a New Zealand political cartoonist and caricaturist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom for many years. Low was a self-taught cartoonist. Born in New Zealand, he worked in his native country before migrating to Sydney in 1911, and ultimately to London (1919), where he made his career and earned fame for his Colonel Blimp depictions and his satirising of the personalities and policies of German dictator Adolf Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and other leaders of his times.
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John William Pilbean Goffage MBE, known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until he died in 1971, and during this time he performed regularly in major Australian feature films as well as appearing in British and American productions, including The Overlanders and The Sundowners. He appeared in commercials in Britain during the late 1950s, encouraging British emigration to Australia.
The LGOC B-type is a model of double-decker bus that was introduced in London in 1910. It was both built and operated by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC).
Events from the year 1915 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the First World War, which broke out in the August of the previous year.
Old bill or Old Bill may refer to:
The Bystander was a British weekly tabloid magazine that featured reviews, topical drawings, cartoons and short stories. Published from Fleet Street, it was established in 1903 by George Holt Thomas. Its first editor, William Comyns Beaumont, later edited the magazine again from 1928 to 1932.
Old Bill is a fictional character created in 1914–15 by cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather. Old Bill was depicted as an elderly, pipe-smoking British "tommy" with a walrus moustache. The character achieved a great deal of popularity during World War I where it was considered a major morale booster for the British troops. Old Bill and his younger troopmate little Alphie were private infantrymen in the British Expeditionary Force.
The Better 'Ole, also called The Romance of Old Bill, is an Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot, music by Herman Darewski, and lyrics by Percival Knight and James Heard, based on the cartoon character Old Bill, an infantryman, drawn by Bairnsfather. In the musical, Old Bill intercepts a spy's plan to destroy a bridge, trapping a French regiment after they cross it. Bill saves them by blowing up the bridge before they pass; his actions are misunderstood, however, and he is arrested for disobeying orders and holding an enemy document. After Victoire explains the situation, Bill is released and given a medal.
Illustrated Chips was a British comic magazine published between 26 July 1890 and 12 September 1953. Its publisher was the Amalgamated Press, run by Alfred Harmsworth. Priced at a half-penny, Illustrated Chips was among a number of Harmsworth publications that challenged the dominance in popularity of the "penny dreadfuls" among British children.
Old Bill and Son is a 1941 British black-and-white comedy war film directed by Ian Dalrymple. Centred on the First World War cartoon figure Old Bill and his escapades in the early Phoney War of World War II and with that character's creator Bruce Bairnsfather as one of its screenwriters, it stars Morland Graham, John Mills, Mary Clare and Ronald Shiner as Herbert 'Bert' Smith. It is executive produced by Alexander Korda for Legeran Films.
A Letter from Ulster is a 1942 documentary by Ulster-born movie director Brian Desmond Hurst who, along with his lifelong friend Terence Young (scriptwriter) and fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William (Bill) MacQuitty, created this film promoting a sense of community between the people of Northern Ireland and over one hundred thousand troops from the US based in Northern Ireland at the time. William Alwyn provided music.
Old Bill Through the Ages is a 1924 British silent comedy fantasy film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Syd Walker, Arthur Cleave and Jack Denton. The film was based on a series of cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather. The screenplay concerns a soldier serving in the trenches during the First World War who falls asleep and travels through time, encountering a number of historical figures.
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The Better 'Ole is a 1926 American synchronized sound World War I comedy drama film. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., this film is the second full-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process, two months after the first Vitaphone feature Don Juan; with no audible dialogue, the film does have a synchronized musical score and sound effects. This film was also the second onscreen adaptation of the 1917 musical The Better 'Ole by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot. Charlie Chaplin's eldest brother Sydney Chaplin played the main lead as Old Bill in perhaps his best-known film today. This film is also believed by many to have the first spoken word of dialog, "coffee", although there are those who disagree. At one point during the film, Harold Goodwin's character whispers a word to Sydney Chaplin which is also faintly heard. This was discovered by the UCLA's Robert Gitt, during the restoration of the sound discs for the film. The line was recorded in perfect sync, apparently during the orchestra recording sessions rather than live on set, therefore making it the earliest known use of dubbing in a motion picture.
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Old Bill, the life of Thomas Henry Rafferty, Brewin Books by John Pimm Belcher