View source for Wally Fawkes

{{Short description|Canadian-British cartoonist and clarinettist (1924–2023)}}
{{for|the Yorkshire landowner and MP|Walter Fawkes}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Wally Fawkes
| image         = Wally Fawkes.jpg
| landscape     = yes
| caption       = Self-portrait with his most famous creation, ''[[Flook (comic strip)|Flook]]''
| birth_name    = Walter Ernest Pearsall
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=y|1924|06|21}}
| birth_place   = [[Vancouver]], Canada
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=y|2023|03|01|1924|06|21}}
| death_place   = London, England
| nationality   = {{flatlist|
* Canadian
* British
}}
| other_names   = Trog
| occupation    = {{plainlist|
* [[Cartoonist|Newspaper cartoonist]]
* [[Jazz clarinet]]tist
}}
| notable_works = ''[[Flook (comic strip)|Flook]]''
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Sandy Fawkes]]|1949|end=div.}}
* {{marriage|Susan Clifford|1965}}
}}
| children      = 6
}}

'''Walter Ernest Fawkes''' ({{né|'''Pearsall'''}}; 21 June 1924 – 1 March 2023), also known as '''Trog''' when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British [[jazz clarinet]]tist and [[Satire|satirical]] cartoonist. 

After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old,<ref name="BBC Bio"/> he [[Autodidacticism|taught himself]] the clarinet, and first joined a [[revivalist artist|revivalist]] jazz band with [[George Webb (musician)|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 (comic strip)|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">{{cite web |title=Wally Fawkes |url=https://www.vintagemusic.fm/artist/wally-fawkes/ |website=Vintage Music |access-date=26 February 2023 |archive-date=26 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126112549/https://www.vintagemusic.fm/artist/wally-fawkes/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Early life==
Fawkes was born on 21 June 1924,<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=144}}</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 ({{nee}} Ainsley), later left for Charles Fawkes, a British printer. Mabel took her children with Charles to Britain in 1931.<ref name="mellyobit">{{cite web |title=Wally Fawkes obituary |author=Melly, George |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/07/wally-fawkes-obituary |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=7 March 2023 |access-date=12 March 2023}}</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">{{cite web |title=Happy 95th Birthday to Wally Fawkes! |url=https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/whos-this-guy-fawkes |website=[[The Oldie]] |access-date=26 February 2023}}</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 (United Kingdom)|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 (musician)|George Webb]]'s [[Dixieland jazz|Dixielanders]], a semi-professional [[revivalist artist|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">{{cite web |title=Cartoonist and jazz musician Wally Fawkes, who used the pen name Trog, dies aged 98 |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/cartoonist-and-jazz-musician-wally-fawkes-who-used-the-pen-name-trog-dies-aged-98/ar-AA18cfc3 |website=Metro |access-date=7 March 2023}}</ref> as part of Lyttelton's band, in 1949.<ref name="dawkes">{{cite web |author=Gardner, Peter |title=Happy Birthday to Wally Fawkes |url=https://www.dawkes.co.uk/sound-room/happy-birthday-to-wally-fawkes/ |website=Dawkes Music |date=20 June 2022 |access-date=26 February 2023 }}</ref><ref name="irishobituary">{{cite web |title=Cartoonist and jazz musician Wally Fawkes dies aged 98 |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/uknews/2023/03/03/news/cartoonist_and_jazz_musician_wally_fawkes_dies_aged_98-3106915/ |website=[[The Irish News]] |date=3 March 2023 |access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref> He played with [[George Melly]] and [[John Chilton]] in the Feetwarmers band in the early 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 February 2016 |title=John Chilton: Trumpeter and admired jazz historian |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-chilton-trumpeter-and-admired-jazz-historian-who-made-his-name-as-leader-of-the-feetwarmers-supporting-george-melly-a6899336.html |access-date=4 March 2023 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</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">{{cite magazine|title=Obituary: Wally Fawkes |author= Wright, Matthew |url=https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2023/03/07/obituary-wally-fawkes/ |magazine=Jazz Journal |date=7 March 2023}}</ref>

===As a cartoonist===
{{quote box||align=left|width=25em|bgcolor = Cornsilk|quote=Of all his talents, there is none I admire more than his outstanding skill as a caricaturist. Very few artists can see a likeness the way he can, and catch it so completely. He doesn't develop a hieroglyph for each politician and then simply reach for it each time it is needed. Every Trog caricature is carefully recrafted.|source=[[Nicholas Garland]]<ref name="BCA"/>}}

In 1942, he entered an art competition that was judged by the ''[[Daily Mail]]''{{'}}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">{{cite web |title=Looking back at Flook: An interview with Wally Fawkes |author=Smith, Adam |url=https://www.tcj.com/looking-back-at-flook-an-interview-with-wally-fawkes/ |website=The Comics Journal |date=11 September 2013 |access-date=1 March 2023}}</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">{{cite web|title =Biography: Wally Fawkes (Trog) |publisher=British Cartoon Archive | url =http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/artists/wallyfawkes/biography|access-date =7 September 2013}}</ref> He signed the drawings as '''Trog''', which was short for [[Cave dweller|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 shelter]]s people in London were becoming [[Cave dweller|troglodytes]].<ref name="BCA"/> Fawkes was later inspired by this to adopt "Trog" as his pen-name. 

In 1949, Fawkes's comic strip ''[[Flook (cartoon)|Flook]]'' first appeared in the ''Daily Mail'', and was a success.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://animationresources.org/comics-trogs-rufus-and-flook/|title=Newspaper Comics: Trog's Rufus and Flook|publisher=Animationresources.org|date=21 August 2020|access-date=27 July 2021}}</ref> It featured the unlikely and satirical adventures of its small and furry [[:wikt:eponym|eponym]]ous 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">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4145106.stm|title=Farewell blues |date=17 August 2005|first=Giles|last=Wilson|access-date=7 September 2013}}</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 [[Elizabeth II|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 Mail''{{'}}s political cartoonist when Illingworth retired in 1969. That year he also replaced Illingworth as political cartoonist of ''[[Punch (magazine)|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 (editor)|David English]],<ref name="BCA"/> who gave the role of political cartoonist to [[Stanley McMurtry|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 (UK newspaper)|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>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9775696/Celebrating-the-great-cartoons-of-Trog.html|title=Celebrating the great cartoons of Trog|first=Martin|last=Chilton|date=7 January 2013|access-date=7 September 2013 |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</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">{{Cite web|url=https://crimereads.com/sandy-fawkes-the-reporter-and-the-serial-killer/|title = Sandy Fawkes: The Reporter and the Serial Killer |date = 4 April 2019 |access-date = 28 February 2023}}</ref> They had four children together,<ref name="irishobituary"/> one of whom died of [[SIDS]].<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">{{cite magazine|title=RIP the great Oldie cartoonist Wally Fawkes at 98|first=Margaret|last=Crick|magazine=[[The Oldie]] |url=https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/rip-wally-fawkes-aged-98 |date=3 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="irishobituary"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/trog.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia biography]
* {{discogs artist|Wally Fawkes}}
* {{imdb name|2605974}}

{{Canadian cartoonists}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fawkes, Wally}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:2023 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Vancouver]]
[[Category:British comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:Canadian comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:British comics artists]]
[[Category:Canadian comics artists]]
[[Category:British satirists]]
[[Category:Canadian satirists]]
[[Category:British satirical comics artists]]
[[Category:Canadian satirical comics artists]]
[[Category:Private Eye contributors]]
[[Category:British jazz clarinetists]]
[[Category:Dixieland revivalist clarinetists]]
[[Category:Musicians from Vancouver]]
[[Category:Punch (magazine) cartoonists]]
[[Category:21st-century clarinetists]]
[[Category:Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Stomp Off artists]]
[[Category:British blues musicians]]
[[Category:People with multiple citizenship]]
[[Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom]]