Wally Fawkes

Walter Ernest Fawkes (Template:Né; 21 June 1924 – 1 March 2023), also known as Trog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist.

After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old,<ref name="BBC Bio"/> he taught himself the clarinet, and first joined a revivalist jazz band with George Webb in 1944.<ref name="the oldie"/> He later created a new, more mainstream band with friend Humphrey Lyttelton, and it soon became one of the leading British jazz bands of the 1950s.<ref name="BCA"/>

Fawkes also achieved success illustrating cartoons under the pen name "Trog". His most notable work in this business was Flook, a comic strip which ran in The Daily Mail newspaper from 1949 to 1984. Initially aimed at children, the strip evolved over time into a gentle satire of British politics. When Flook ended he continued to illustrate until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005 at age 81,<ref name="BBC Bio"/> leaving him to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing.<ref name="Vintage Music">Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Fawkes was born on 21 June 1924,<ref name="LarkinJazz">Template:Cite book</ref> as Walter Ernest<ref name="dawkes"/> Pearsall<ref name="mellyobit"/> in Vancouver, British Columbia.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/><ref name="Vintage Music"/> His father, Douglas Pearsall, was a Canadian railway clerk whom his mother, Mabel (Template:Nee Ainsley), later left for Charles Fawkes, a British printer. Mabel took her children with Charles to Britain in 1931.<ref name="mellyobit">Template:Cite web</ref>

Enthused by comic books from a young age, Fawkes left school at 14 with a scholarship to study at Sidcup Art School,<ref name="the oldie">Template:Cite web</ref> although he later left after 18 months due to financial restraints.<ref name="BCA"/> On the outbreak of the Second World War, Fawkes was first employed painting camouflage on factory roofs to hide them from enemy bombing.<ref name="BCA"/> A bout of pleurisy made Fawkes unfit for service and he was instead employed by the Coal Commission to work on maps of coal seams.<ref name="BCA"/>

Career

As a jazz musician

It was during the war years that Fawkes began playing in jazz bands. In 1947, he took a weekly course at the Camberwell School of Art<ref name="BCA"/> in London where he met future friends Humphrey Lyttelton and Francis Wilford-Smith. Lyttelton would become a long-lasting close friend.<ref name="BCA"/> Fawkes later joined George Webb's Dixielanders, a semi-professional revivalist jazz band that featured Lyttelton on trumpet, in 1944.<ref name="the oldie"/> When Lyttelton left the Dixielanders in January 1948 to form his own jazz band, Fawkes went with him and stayed there until 1956,<ref name="LarkinJazz"/><ref name="interview"/> by which time it had evolved past revivalism and became more mainstream.<ref name="BCA"/> This suited Fawkes, as his own bands from then on could be broadly described as mainstream.<ref name="Vintage Music"/> He re-united with Lyttelton periodically thereafter, and, though highly talented on his instrument, remained (in the broadest sense of the term) an "amateur".<ref name="Vintage Music"/> He based his style on that of American jazz composer Sidney Bechet<ref name="the oldie"/> and once recorded with him and Louis Armstrong,<ref name="metro">Template:Cite web</ref> as part of Lyttelton's band, in 1949.<ref name="dawkes">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="irishobituary">Template:Cite web</ref> He played with George Melly and John Chilton in the Feetwarmers band in the early 1970s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After giving up illustrating in 2005, Fawkes continued to play in various bands, with one of his last performances being held in 2011.<ref name="jazz journal">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

As a cartoonist

In 1942, he entered an art competition that was judged by the Daily MailTemplate:'s chief cartoonist Leslie Illingworth, who found him work with the Clement Davies advertising agency.<ref name="BCA"/> On Fawkes' 21st birthday in 1945,<ref name="interview">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="BCA"/><ref name="the oldie"/> Illingworth found Fawkes work at the Daily Mail drawing column-breaks and decorative illustrations.<ref name="BCA">Template:Cite web</ref> He signed the drawings as Trog, which was short for Troglodyte which came from his days from World War II. He once joked that due to the amount of time spent in underground air-raid shelters people in London were becoming troglodytes.<ref name="BCA"/> Fawkes was later inspired by this to adopt "Trog" as his pen-name.

In 1949, Fawkes's comic strip Flook first appeared in the Daily Mail, and was a success.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It featured the unlikely and satirical adventures of its small and furry eponymous hero.<ref name="BCA"/> Fawkes's role on the Mail was chiefly as illustrator, and he had a strong team of collaborators on the scripts for Flook over the years, including George Melly, Barry Norman, Humphrey Lyttelton and Barry Took. Flook ran for 35 years in the Daily Mail until its sudden cancellation in 1984. Margaret Thatcher once said that it was "quite the best commentary of the politics of the day".<ref name="BBC Bio">Template:Cite news</ref> When the news broke that Fawkes was leaving the Mail he was signed up by Robert Maxwell, who in July 1984 had bought the Daily Mirror, from where Fawkes took Flook. It then transferred briefly to the Sunday Mirror before being dropped completely.<ref name="BBC Bio"/><ref name="BCA"/>

Fawkes also produced political cartoons for The Spectator with George Melly as his author.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> The two also contributed occasionally to Private Eye and, beginning in 1962, to the New Statesman. Despite producing larger political cartoons for the Daily Mail, his future role as Illingworth's successor as lead cartoonist was threatened by the paper's preference for the work of Gerald Scarfe. Fawkes therefore began submitting work to other publications, and he began contributing political cartoons to The Observer. At The Observer he fell foul of the readership when readers complained that some of his cartoons about the British royalty were "grossly discourteous to the Queen".<ref name="BCA"/> In 1967 Scarfe left the Mail and Fawkes' position at the paper became more secure, and in 1968 he stopped writing for The Observer to focus solely on the Mail.<ref name="BCA"/>

Fawkes became the Daily MailTemplate:'s political cartoonist when Illingworth retired in 1969. That year he also replaced Illingworth as political cartoonist of Punch. In 1971, the Daily Mail absorbed the Daily Sketch, and the role of transforming the old paper from a broadsheet into a tabloid fell to the old Sketch editor Sir David English,<ref name="BCA"/> who gave the role of political cartoonist to Stan McMurtry and Fawkes was dropped from his old role.<ref name="BCA"/> Fawkes returned to The Observer in 1971 and continued to work for Punch. After Flook was cancelled in 1985, Fawkes worked briefly for Today and then served a short stint at the London Daily News. During the 1980s he continued to contribute to Punch and Private Eye, and for The Observer he drew a pocket cartoon named "mini-Trog". In 1996 he left The Observer and joined The Sunday Telegraph, where he remained until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005.<ref name="BBC Bio"/>

In 2013 his work was celebrated with an exhibition at the Cartoon Museum of London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In 1949 Fawkes married the journalist Sandy Fawkes, who later became known for surviving an affair with the American serial killer Paul John Knowles.<ref name="crimereads.com">Template:Cite web</ref> They had four children together,<ref name="irishobituary"/> one of whom died of SIDS (cot death).<ref name="crimereads.com"/> In 1965, he married Susan Clifford – daughter of the Australian composer Hubert Clifford – and they had two children.<ref name="Vintage Music"/><ref name="irishobituary"/>

Fawkes died in London on 1 March 2023, at age 98, following a short illness.<ref name="oldieobituary">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="irishobituary"/>

External links

• Lambiek Comiclopedia biography
• Template:Discogs artist
• Template:Imdb name