By his own admission Leslie Illingworth did not hold strong political convictions, which makes all the more remarkable his undisputed place as one of Britain’s greatest 20th century political cartoonists. Assisted by a fine and powerful line, on occasion a highly skilled application of scraperboard, and an almost unrivalled talent for caricature, Leslie Illingworth’s name sits comfortably alongside his great contemporaries Sir David Low, Vicky and E H Shepard.
Leslie Gilbert Illingworth was born 2 September 1902 in Harbour Road, Barry. He was the youngest son of Richard Illingworth, a quantity surveyor who worked in the Engineers’ Department of Barry Docks, and his wife Helen (neé MacGregor), a teacher from Yorkshire. His uncle, Frank Illingworth, was a minor cartoonist who published in Punch in 1914. In 1904, the family moved to the nearby town of Cadoxton, where the young Illingworth attended the local Palmerston Road Infants School.
In 1912, they moved to Gileston, where he attended St Athan School. Subsequently, he won scholarships to first Barry County Boys’ School, and then to the City of Cardiff Technical College.
By 1920, Leslie Illingworth was working in the lithographic department of the Western Mail, whilst also contributing sketches and sporting cartoons for its sister publication, the Football Express. That year, he was awarded a County Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, where he received encouragement from William Rothenstein. Beginning his studies in 1921, he had only been at the Royal College of Art for a few months, when the Western Mail’s political cartoonist, J M Staniforth, passed away. Illingworth accepted an offer to replace Staniforth as the Western Mail’s political cartoonist and he returned to Wales to take up the position. In the early 1920s, he also began to supplement his political work with freelance illustration work for publications such as Tit-Bits, Good Housekeeping, Strand Magazine, London Opinion and others. In 1927, Illingworth took a six month leave of absence from his work at the Western Mail and travelled first to Paris to study at the Academie Julien. When his course in Paris was completed, he travelled via Liverpool to New York, where he spent three months working as a political cartoonist for Hearst newspapers and also for Life magazine. On his return to England, Illingworth settled in St John’s Wood, London, and studied periodically at the Slade School of Art. He continued to produce cartoons for the Western Mail, sharing duties with J C Walker until 1929, when Walker took on the role full-time. After another trip to the United States in 1930, he returned to working freelance from his studio back at his family home in Wales, working prodigiously for various publications and, increasingly, for advertising campaigns for brands such as Symington’s Soups, Grey’s Cigarettes and Kraft Cheese.
From May 1931, Leslie Illingworth began regularly submitting gag cartoons to Punch. In 1936, he moved back to London, settling at 53 Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater. The following year, one of Punch’s head political cartoonists, Sir Bernard Partridge, fell ill and Illingworth was invited to fill in for him alongside E H Shepard on the magazine’s weekly political cartoons. Partridge’s health continued to decline and by the time war broke out in September 1939, he moved out of London and Illingworth when on to share the twice weekly ‘big cut’ cartoon in Punch as junior cartoonist to Shepard. By 1949, he had been promoted to lead cartoonist and continued to produce Punch’s ‘big cut’ until his retirement in 1968.
In October 1939, Leslie Illingworth applied to replace Percy Fearon, known as ‘Poy’, who had retired the previous year, as political cartoonist for the Daily Mail. He had applied under his mother’s maiden name as he feared that his work for Punch would count against him, but the deputy editor of the Mail, Gordon Beckles, recognised his style and offered him the job regardless. His new role at the Daily Mail was a reserved occupation, which meant that he was not to be conscripted to serve in the armed forces. However, in 1940 he volunteered to join the Local Defence Volunteers (which would later become known as the Home Guard), and in 1943 served as an anti-aircraft gunner in Hyde Park. At the end of the War, a number of Illingworth’s cartoons were discovered in a safe in Hitler’s bunker.
After the War, Leslie Illingworth moved out of London and moved to Robertsbridge, East Sussex, and gave up his commercial work in order to focus on his cartoons for Punch and the Daily Mail. He retired from the Daily Mail in 1969 and was replaced by his protégé, Wally Fawkes. He spent his later years farming at his home in Sussex, though a period of financial difficulty forced him back to work between 1973 and 1974, standing in for Paul Rigby in the Sun, and with a weekly cartoon for the News of the World.
Leslie Illingworth won numerous awards and accolades throughout his life – he was voted political and social cartoonist of the year by the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain in 1962, was first President of the British Cartoonists’ Association in 1966, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent in 1975. He suffered a minor stroke in June 1976 and as his health worsened he was moved into a care home in Hastings by his housekeeper Enid Ratcliff, who had been with him since 1936 and throughout his life-long bachelorship. He died there on 20 December 1979.
