#LG Illingworth

[downthetubes]

“Round the Election Poll”, cartoon by LG Illingworth, for Punch, 1945.

Post World War Two, the first British election in ten years was set for 5th July 1945, but the results were delayed until the 26th, to allow counting overseas ballots, largely from service personnel. Illingworth represented the contending sides as maypole dancers, all running in different directions.

Easly recognisable are Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Lord Beaverbrook (owner of the Daily Express, whose headline warning that a Labour victory would amount to the 'Gestapo in Britain', adapted from a passage in a radio election speech by Churchill on 4th June proved a huge mistake and completely misjudged the public mood), Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and Aneurin "Nye" Bevan.

The 1945 United Kingdom general election, called by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, took place on 5th July 1945. The governing Conservative Party sought to maintain their position within parliament, but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the United Kingdom in the post-war period. Churchill lost the election to the Labour Party in a landslide, making Clement Attlee the new Prime Minister.

Leslie Gilbert Illingworth (2 September 1902 – 20 December 1979) was a Welsh political cartoonist best known for his work for the Daily Mail and as chief cartoonist for Punch. His first work was published in the satirical magazine Punch in 1927.

The University of Kent - British Cartoon: Archive notes Illingworth also produced work for the Ministry of Defence, and on Bernard Partridge’s death in 1945 he replaced him as Second Cartoonist on Punch, working alongside Ernest Shepard. In 1949 Illingworth became Cartoonist on Punch, alternating with Norman Mansbridge. In 1948 Illingworth became a member of the Punch Table, but considered himself uneducated, and was very shy at the weekly lunches, where the subject of the cartoon was decided. When Malcom Muggeridge was editor of Punch from 1953 to 1957, Illingworth would sit at the Punch table between him and John Betjeman. “They were very kind to me”, he recalled: “I was conscious that I was a monumental bore, so I used to concentrate on the claret and keep as quiet as a cabbage.”

Further Reading:

• “Churchill in Punch” by Gary L. Stiles, published by Unicorn in 2022 (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)

Punch featured Winston Churchill in more than 600 cartoons between 1899 to 1988. Some were laudatory, some were critical, and others, like the man himself, usually humorous.

Churchill in Punch catalogues all the cartoons and provides a context of the events and people being satirised and places them in historical perspective.

Early on, Punch often made Churchill into a caricature of himself, promoting exaggerated images of his physical characteristics such as his forward leaning gait, his prominent jutting jaw, his cigar, and his hands on hips when speaking. His hobbies were frequently caricatured such as his love of polo, painting, writing skills and brick-laying.

Publisher Unicorn describes this book as “not just for fans of Churchill, but for anyone interested in history, British life over the past 120 years, media and their response to government and politicians, cartoon aficionados and general society. It is an easy and fun read for the casual reader but also the academic who wants more depth through the appendices and an analysis of major world events through the eye of Punch.”

• University of Kent - British Cartoon: Archive Leslie Gilbert Illingworth Archive