John Whitfield Taylor was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on 11 May 1908. He was educated at the Orme Boys' School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and went on to read French at Manchester University. While there he drew for Rag Bag, the university paper. He had first showed an interest in cartoons at the age of fourteen when he received a collection of Frank Reynolds' drawings as a Christmas present.
After university Taylor returned to Staffordshire, becoming a schoolteacher in the Potteries. It was during this time that he began to take art lessons from Percy Bradshaw's 'Press Art School', a correspondence course.
His first cartoons were accepted by Punch in 1935, and soon after Men Only, London Opinion, Lilliput and others all published his work. He also contributed to Eagle (the 'Educating Archie' strip), the Staffordshire Evening Sentinel and, whilst Headmaster of Holden Lane High School, Stoke-on-Trent, The Teacher. In his 1957, A History of Punch, R G G Price described Taylor as 'one of the most consistent of the crazy artists...perhaps best when barest, nothing distracting attention from the purity of his nonsense' (page 292).
Taylor was a member of the Savage Club and the Society of Staffordshire Artists. He died on 12 December 1985. His son, David, was Editor of Punch from 1986 to 1989. [RC]
