Review of 'Winning with Laughter – Cartoonists & the Great War' by Luci Gosling (November 2018)

In 1914 there were many periodicals which featured cartoons. Their principal aim was satirical – to poke fun at politicians, styles & pompous employers. At the outbreak of war, the most common images of the German aggression were to portray Germania, Kulture or the Kaiser as blood thirsty monsters.

Since newspapers and other media were subjected to government censorship, cartoons were limited in their capacity to overtly criticise the war. Soon the cartoonists’ representation of the war began to change as stalemate set in with trench warfare. The chaotic aspect of modern warfare was represented with out of touch instructions or requests (in ‘Things that Matter’ the request for the number of tins of jam is received during an artillery bombardment) and the nature of dissatisfaction with the soldiers’ conditions in the front line.

In 1915, ‘The Bystander’ started publishing a set of weekly cartoons from ‘their officer in the front line’. This proved to be Bruce Bairnsfather whose recurring character, ‘Old Bill’, a scruffy grumpy soldier, became a firm favourite. Probably Bairnsfather’s most recognisable cartoon was the one with Old Bill and another soldier sheltering in a shell hole with the title: 
‘Well, If you knows of a better 'ole, go to it.’

The ‘Daily Illustrated Mirror’ featured cartoons poking fun at the Kaiser and the Crown Prince by portraying the two as incompetent buffoons named ‘Big Willie’ and ‘Little Willie’

Much darker humour was created by the soldiers themselves in newspapers such as ‘The Wipers Times’.

Report by Peter Palmer