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Private Alfred Edmeades Bestall, Army Service Corps Service Number: DM2/112832 Born: 14 December 1892, Mandalay, Burma Died: 15 January 1986, Porthmadog, Wales (Aged 93) I am the type of person, who when visiting an art gallery, bowls past the information desk, brushes off the tour guide, and boots the audio-headset …
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This is the first 'Mystery File' relating to the soldier-cartoonists who had their contributions published in Blighty but, at this moment in time, the trail has gone cold as I have been unable to find any further information about them — though I am not ready to give up. First, getting published in Blighty brought more …
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Corporal Bertie Inward, 2/19th (St Pancras) Battalion, London Regiment Service Number: 613219 Born: 22 April 1887, Medway, Kent Died: 27 October 1922, Romford, Essex (aged 35) Fred Karno (1886-1941) was a music hall impresario, known for nurturing the careers of a young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel — as well as …
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Private Richard Collins, 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion East Surrey Regiment Service Number: 12906 (Later 12234, 1st Irish Guards) Born: 9 August 1899, Brentford, Middlesex Died: Unknown Enlisted, at the age of 19, in August 1915 with the 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion East Surrey Regiment, earning the qualification of 1st …
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Corporal Gontran De Tournoüer, 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Australian Imperial Force. Service Number: 109 Born: 27 August 1885, Vendome, France. Died: 13 July 1929 (aged 43), Queensland, Australia. Content: This article contains a cartoon, a product of the time, which includes negative stereotypes of a people and its …
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Lance Corporal Gilbert Tom Webster 26th Battalion (Bankers) Royal Fusiliers Service Number: 19799 Born: 17 July 1886, Bilston, Staffordshire Died: 21 June 1962 (aged 75) Tom Webster by Howard Coster, National Portrait Gallery, Public Domain. Better known as Tom Webster, and one of the more well-known names to …
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![Soldier-cartoonist: Private Charles "Chas" William Holt, 16th Sherwood Foresters [Unconfirmed]](/post/2023-04-13-soldier-cartoonist-private-charles-chas-william-holt-16th-sherwood-foresters-unconfirmed/images/Blighty%201916-08-23-11.jpeg)
Private Charles "Chas" William Holt, 16th (Chatsworth Rifles) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire) Regiment Service Number: 26643 Born: 7 February 1880, St Mary, Nottingham Died: 14 January 1954 (aged 73) A son of a wheelwright, on 9 September 1914, aged 34, Holt enlisted for three …
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Figure 1. The Outpost, 1 March, 1918, p.175, British Library This is the first entry in an ongoing series documenting soldier-cartoonists of the First World War, including those who had contributions published in the magazine Blighty, those who contributed to Trench Journals and Unit magazines, and those who kept …
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Blighty: A Budget of Humour From Home, was a charitable ‘soldiers-newspaper’ that ran between May 1916 and March 1919 (and later became a short-lived mainstream publication until its bankruptcy in 1921). In the foreword for the first issue, the origin of the magazine was attributed to an unnamed journalist who was …
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