“A Loud, Mocking Clamour of Noise…” Punch Or: The London Charivari: A Cultural Treasure Trove:

I have long been an admirer of the excellent satirical magazine Punch, and am lucky enough to own a few Victorian editions which I regularly thumb with mirth and glee, but when it came to writing a short history of the comical publication I found myself stuck, at a loss, and unable to do it any real justice.

For a good year or so I’ve been jotting things down, writing post titles and making notes on what to include in my article about Punch, but always with the same result – I’ll come back to it later. The sheer volume of history, writers and illustrators were so vast that I thought it best left to a book (preferably written by someone else) until it struck me that in my midst on Twitter I had long been following Punch (under the handle @PunchCartoons) and if I asked nicely enough perhaps they would tell their story for this humble blog.

Luckily, Andre at Punch was only too happy to oblige, and has provided a fantastic history of the great Punch magazine, thus fulfilling a glaring gap in the contents of this blog.

Whether you’re a fan of Punch or have never heard of it, please enjoy reading about the life of London’s greatest – and funniest – magazine:

Why was Punch magazine 'great'? Historians, politicians, writers and readers have over the many cascading decades since it started in 1841 called it legendary, influential, iconic, an institution. Just flicking through its pages the first thing you notice are the bold, confident illustrations, 'cartoons' which brilliantly satirize the political figures of the day and national symbols fighting it out on the world stage, by which time in the 1840s and 50s, Britain was the most powerful nation and largest empire in history.

But it is also a joy to open a volume of Punch– a window into another point in time- and to see how different things were (fashion, political in-correctness, extreme poverty, London Fog), how some things were surprisingly the same (class pretension, speech, snowball fights) and how the future was being imagined a hundred years from their own time with inventions some of which are only just becoming a reality. The writing and wonderful images are alive – perfect snapshots of the spirit of a Great Britain long gone. And just like the Curate's Egg cartoon, if it was to begin with at least, a serious political satirical magazine, then it certainly had many funny social parts.

The Cartoon, a term which Punch invented as a socially barbed critique of Parliament's exhibition of preparatory sketches for its own artworks during a time of social poverty and injustice, were in Punch's early years drawn by John Leech and suggested by Henry Mayhew. These talents exemplified Punch's strengths and character: witty social commentary and lovingly crafted illustrations within a particularly English type of humour. Leech's 'social cuts' were hugely popular – spawning separately published collections from Punch – and people would wait eagerly to see his latest work each week.

But there were many layers to Punch's success, beyond an enthusiasm and confidence in its pages that reflected a great Age of Empire, national identity and progress. Now in full swing, the Industrial Revolution's consumer boom was also accompanied by one in print culture, fuelling demand not only in china teacups, but books, newspapers and magazines.

The common practice in magazines of the time of 'anonymous' un-credited articles gave Punch an advantage: its brand association with the European tradition of Punchinello, and in particular, Mr. Punch. This set it apart from the competition and gave its articles and cartoons a greater weight, a singular unified voice transmitted as the musings of Mr. Punch himself. Starting with Henry Mayhew and Douglas Jerrold's radical writing, then John Tenniel's iconic imperial cartoons and Shirley Brooks' Toryism, Punch came to be viewed as the official point of view of the English, at home and around the world. 

Of course Punch magazine's strength lay in its contributors, particularly those of the well paid Punch Table editorial staff like Shirley Brooks and even editor Mark Lemon, who wrote for other magazines on the understanding with the owners they would supply only their best work to Punch in exchange for a generous salary. The Punch Table itself was an exclusive English gentleman's club where intelligent middle aged men would congregate every Wednesday evening, tell jokes, share the week's gossip and finally, after dinner, puff on cigars and discuss the treatment for the next issue's 'Cartoon', often directly based on The Times newspaper's leading headline. Henry Mayhew's ideas mostly made the 'Big Cut' political cartoon through his role as 'Suggestive Editor'; a process involving at times heated debate, all regulated by Mark Lemon's balance and sense of gentlemanly conduct. After Mayhew left the magazine Shirley Brooks' strength of personality and wit dominated the table and brought a new Conservative tone to the output.

Shirley Brooks

Another reason for Punch magazine's popularity was being part of a clear shift away from the gutter press to a more respectful way of doing things, hence achieving respectability that many rivals couldn't attain, either through failing – several magazines failed within a few months – or by their readership being sapped by other satirical papers during a time of mass consumerism and demand for literature and printed material.

Serialized fiction in magazines was hugely in demand since Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers – his new publishers since 1844, Bradbury and Evans had recently bought Punch in December 1842 from its cash strapped collaborators: journalist Henry Mayhew, engraver Ebenezer Landells and Mark Lemon – humourist, dramatist, and pub landlord of The Shakespeare's Head frequented by Dickens, dramatist Douglas Jerrold (dubbed Little Shakespeare due to his vast knowledge of the bard's works), the Bohemian set and several literary types. The popularity of 'The Snobs of England' by William Makepeace Thackeray in 1846 was one of several Punch in-house series that were later published in book form, as was 'Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures' by Jerrold (1846) and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith in 1888.

Equally important as individual talent on the magazine was the bond of friendship at the Punch Table, reciprocated with owners Bradbury and Evans who attended the weekly meeting. Crucially the owners supported the editorial staff's decisions. Beyond vocal support, Bradbury and Evans had the most efficient printing press in Britain which enabled a transition from individual cottage industry printing to large scale, speedy operations, accurately incorporating text and illustration in a weekly publication. These printer-proprietors were an important factor in the success of Punch: as well as initially taking the plunge investing in a loss making venture and continuing to protect it with savvy business decisions, they frequently even lent money to editor Mark Lemon and Shirley Brooks during their personal financial troubles, all the while supporting their editorial decisions.

One such decision which helped Punch on its way was in accepting Thomas Hood's Song of the Shirt in December 1843 after having been turned down by several magazines. The poem had a great impact on the Victorian middle classes in highlighting the state of the impoverished and exemplifies, together with such cartoons as ‘Needle Money’ (1849), ‘A Court for King Cholera’ (1852) and ‘The Stable’ (1861) how Punch championed the cause of the poor and of improvements to working conditions, sanitation, housing and education. Punch also raised much money in appeals for charitable causes, especially during the two World Wars – the high points of its popularity – such as Mr. Punch's Hospital Comforts Fund, to purchase fabric for soldiers' clothes in WW2.

A Thackeray Cartoon

William Makepeace Thackeray, on the Punch editorial staff, made a huge impression on the literary world, first with his 'The Snobs of England' (1846), popularising the word 'snob' in the English lexicon and contributing many pieces and some cartoons. After his success with Vanity Fair (1847) and Pendennis (1848) he became a literary heavyweight overtaking even Douglas Jerrold. Thus his 'coat of humour', Punch, had become too small a fit (satirical magazines were considered a lower form of printed media) and though leaving the magazine he still continued to attend the weekly editorial dinners. Through Thackeray's fame and association with Dickens – by being contrasted to him, in having the same publishers, and being members of the literary epicentre The Garrick Club – the Punch staff were in great company and in that close-knit Victorian literary world this brought respect to the magazine. Dickens had already been friends with Douglas Jerrold; and Mark Lemon, John Leech, and Shirley Brooks were all close friends of Dickens from 1847 – his son Charlie Dickens married Thackeray's daughter and contributed to Punch.

 In the 1860s and 70s the great George du Maurier and Edward Linley Sambourne came onto the staff and cemented Punch's already legendary status, both adding to the visual recognition of the magazine: du Maurier's highly detailed society cartoons of perfectly observed Victorian middle class pretensions, modes and art movements and in Sambourne's cartoons of fashion, the female form and politics in a new graphic style.

du Maurier Cartoon on 'beautymania'

 The big four cartoonists of the Victorian era: Leech, Tenniel, du Maurier and Sambourne were replicated in the Twentieth Century by Bernard Partridge, Leonard Raven Hill, Leslie Illingworth and E.H. Shepard, and supplemented by the splendid works of George Morrow, Charles Harrison, Lewis Baumer, J.H. Dowd, Frank Reynolds, George Belcher, Pont...the list goes on – the best standards of cartooning and illustration seen anywhere.

From Partridge's epic World War 1 propaganda to Sherriff's film stars, to 'The British Character' by Pont, the world which 'browsed' Punch was given a real treat every week over the course of a hundred and fifty years to the best of British by Britain's best. Many of the writers and cartoonists gracing its pages were legends in their own right, having acclaim and several successes outside the magazine, but these special ingredients all came to be distilled together for each issue of Punch. In looking at the latest news, fashions, technology, films, books and social preoccupations, it has become a treasure trove of English culture.

Without doubt it was the framework of that talent, high editorial standards, networking and support, good fortune, balance and timing from the outset which gave Punch its stature and ensured that it was envied, copied, parodied, feared and respected in equal measure. Just as all the best cartoonists wanted to have their work printed in Punch, so too all the politicians would have discovered their political culture, history and eventual public perception – as the young Winston Churchill did – from its pages. The politicians may have cringed at their caricatured depictions, but they would have relished it all the same.

By being a mirror to English society, repeating and commenting on what its writers and cartoonists saw, heard and experienced in the news and fresh gossip at ground level, by urging social change and trumpeting its own national cause, it became a beacon for the British Empire and stands as a unique monument in British and world history. If, (from the Punch sub-title) Charivari means a loud mocking clamour of noise, then Punch certainly made everyone sit up and notice.

Punch Facts

·        Charles Dickens, Garibaldi and Mark Twain all dined at the Punch Table.

·        The Crystal Palace was given its name by Punch, in 1851, for the Great Exhibition.

·        Punch was responsible for starting the Scottish stereotype of frugality with the 'Bang went saxpence!!!' cartoon by Charles Keene.

The Charles Keene 'Bang Went Saxpence' Cartoon

·        Winston Churchill – In his 'Thoughts and Adventures' (1932), Churchill dedicates a chapter to Cartoons and Cartoonists, stating that he learnt history from the few volumes of Punch at school in the 1880s, and that they serve as 'food for grown-up children'. He refers to several Punch classics such as Dropping the Pilot (1890), The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger (1857) and Britannia Sympathises with Columbia (1865). Punch would later offend Churchill in 1954 under the editorship of Malcolm Muggeridge with a cartoon by Leslie Illingworth showing a frail Prime Minister above the caption "Man goeth forth unto his work".

·        Kaiser Wilhelm II – Punch and the Kaiser had a long relationship; unsurprisingly Queen Victoria's grandson was often offended. An avid reader of Punch he tried to understand the English and impress them, with ever decreasing results. While banning Punch from his palaces and his yacht for a few months, he wrote to Queen Victoria and asked her to stop its production, unsuccessfully, after The Modern Alexander's Feast (1892) by Tenniel to which Sambourne followed up with Wilful Wilhelm a few issues later, showing him in a tantrum with broken framed Punch cartoon Dropping the Pilot, a knocked over globe of the world and holding up issues of Punch in outrage. Wilhelm would admit during WWI that Punch magazine's propaganda cartoons were having a de-moralising effect on the German nation.

·        Felix Mendelssohn – Punch reviewed Mendelsohhn's 'Antigone' at Covent Garden in January 1845 to which he wrote to his sister: "See if you cannot find Punch for Jan. 18. It contains an account of Antigone at Covent Garden, with illustrations, - especially a view of the Chorus which has made me laugh for three days."

·        Adolph Menzel – German artist Menzel subscribed to Punch weekly just to see the latest Charles Keene social cartoon. Keene was highly revered internationally and being an admirer of Menzel is regarded as bringing in a modern, German style of illustration to Britain. Menzel "collected great piles of the magazine".

·        HRH Prince Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret were all invited and carved their initials on the Punch Table; Princess Anne also wrote an article for Punch.

·        Margaret Thatcher attended the Punch Table in 1975.

·        Mark Twain – When the novelist came to visit and was invited to carve his initials onto the Punch Table he kindly refused, saying that two of the three initials carved by William Makepeace Thackeray would suffice.

MARK TWAIN HUMOR APPROVED BY PUNCH.

A Big Cartoon Dedicated to Him and the Staff Will Dine Him.

GUEST OF THE PILGRIMS. Notable Luncheon Given, to Which 1,000 Notable Vainly Ask to be Bidden.

Special Cablegram. Copyright, 1907, by THE NEW YORK TIMES CO.

LONDON, June 25. - Mark Twain will go back to America duly certificated [sic] as a humorist. Punch, which regards Americans generally as lacking in the sense of humor, does not consider Mark Twain deficient in that respect. He is one of their own kind. The Punch people think, and they are kittening to him with their whole hearts. They exhibit their feeling for him in a full page cartoon in today's issue, which is dedicated to him. Mark Twain appears seated at a table, on which stands a big steaming punch bowl. Mr. Punch, who is placed in the foreground, drinks to Mark Twain's health, the toast being:

"Sir, I honour myself by drinking to your health. Long life to you and happiness and perpetual youth."

Mark Twain expects to have a grand time at a dinner which The Punch people will give to him. They asked him which he would rather do, "Go to a hotel and have something decent to eat," or dine at the famous Long Table in Punch's office. He voted unanimously for the Long Table."

            - The New York Times, June 26, 1907.

Some Notable Contributors

Kingsley Amis,

Joan Bakewell,

Sir John Betjamin,

Maeve Binchy,

Basil Boothroyd,

Malcolm Bradbury,

Melvyn Bragg,

Fenton Bresler,

Alan Brien,

Alan Coren,

Paul Dehn,

E.M Delafield,

Peter Dickinson,

Margaret Drabble,

Mary Dunn,

H.F. Ellis,

Michael Frayn,

Clement Freud,

David Frost,

Virginia Graham,

Robert Graves,

Benny Green,

Joyce Grenfell,

Alan Hackney,

Roy Hattersley,

A.P. Herbert,

Quintin Hogg,

Richard Hoggart,

P.M. Hubbard,

Barry Humphreys,

Clive James,

Anthony Jay,

Ludovic Kennedy,

Eric Keown,

Miles Kington,

E.V. Knox,

C.S. Lewis,

R.P. Lister,

Humphrey Lyttleton,

Joy Melville,

A.A. Milne,

Angela Milne,

Richard Mallett,

Kingsley Martin,

Robert Morley,

Sheridan Morley,

Malcolm Muggeridge,

Frank Muir,

Michael Parkinson,

J.B. Priestly,

Libby Purves,

Stanley Reynolds,

Jonathan Sale,

Harry Seacombe,

R.C. Scriven,

Ned Sherrin,

Muriel Spark,

James Thurber,

Hugh Trevor-Roper,

E.S. Turner,

Keith Waterhouse,

Hugh Weldon,

Geoffrey Willans (Molesworth),

P.G. Wodehouse (Our Man in America),

Woodrow Wyatt,

D.B. Wyndham Lewis,

B.A Young.

Burnand

Francis Burnand (F.C. Burnand) – Dramatist, humourist, writer of burlesques and Punch Editor from 1880. Wrote more than 200 works outside of Punch; one of the most prolific dramatic writers of his time. His play "The Colonel" was the first royal command performance attended by Queen Victoria in twenty years, was hugely successful and based on Punch regular cartoonist George du Maurier's series featuring "the Colonel" character. Started writing for Punch in 1863. The Colonel-type character remained popular in Punch and could be argued as a main influence for cartoonist David Low's Colonel Blimp in the 1930s.

Tom Taylor – Playwright of 'Our American Cousin' which was the wildly successful play on both sides of the Atlantic from 1858 until the end of the Victorian era and was attended by President Abraham Lincoln at his assassination in 1865. Tom Taylor later became Punch Editor in 1874.

A.A. Milne – When We Were Very Young, first published in Punch, introduced Winnie the Pooh, or Edward Bear as he was then known in 1924.

Eric Keown – His 'Sir Tristram Goes West' first appeared for Punch in 1932 and was made into a highly successful Hollywood film 'The Ghost Goes West' (1936) starring Robert Donat and Elsa Lanchester.

A.P. Herbert – A trained barrister, M.P., novelist, law reformer and thoroughly clever chap who, through his humorous 'Misleading Cases' series in Punch highlighted the archaic laws and judgements of English jurisprudence and managed through a private members bill to reform divorce in his Matrimonial Causes Act (1937), making it possible to divorce for the first time without proof of adultery. His 'Cases' were made into three BBC series in the late 1960s.

Major John McCrae – 'In Flanders Fields' was first published in Punch in 1915 and composed at the 2nd Battle of Ypres after McCrae's friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed and McCrae, a Brigade Doctor, had to conduct the burial service.

Patrick Barrington – Famous around the world for his 'I had a hippopotamus' as well as the 'Songs of a Sub-Man' poems in the 1930s.

Alan Coren – Excellent humourist and Punch editor. Prolific contributor to Punch amongst which the 'Idi Amin' letters in the 1970s were hugely popular.

Miles Kington – A broadcaster, journalist, humourist and jazz musician. Together with Alan Coren the mainstay of Punch's written work from the 1960s, to the 80s and laugh-out-loud funny such as Kington's 'Let's Parler Francais' series.

Arthur Reginald Buller – 'There was a young lady named Bright / Who could travel far faster than light / She set off one day / In a relative way / And returned on the previous night.' His famous limerick first appeared in Punch in 1923.

Harold Frank Hoare – Known as "Acanthus" when cartoonist for Punch, as an architect won the competition to design the first Gatwick terminal in 1935 at the age of 25, a circular design dubbed "The Beehive" which still exists. Many of his cartoons include architectural themes such as stately homes and new modern buildings but he was an excellent documenter of the Home Front during WW2.

John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris – Wrote some articles and verse for Punch in the 1930s and 40s and was a thriller writer. However, he was also employed by MI5 in the counter-intelligence section, "M", and was the model for John le Carre's leading man George Smiley. Michael Jago's new biography "The Man Who Was George Smiley - The Life of John Bingham" illuminates his secret life as spy during WW2 and the Cold War and his influence on le Carre. Punch readers would not have known his humourous short story "Telephone Conversation, 1943" was based on his actual work.

Celebrity Guest writers

Dave Brubeck,

Noel Coward,

David Dimbleby,

Graham Greene,

Sir Hugh Greene,

Edward Heath,

Julian Huxley,

Terry Jones,

Joanna Lumley,

Paul McCartney (interviewed in Nov 1966 and contributed a piece in 1973),

Yehudi Menuhin,

Spike Milligan,

Michael Palin, J

ohn Steinbeck,

Auberon Waugh.

Artists

Tenniel

John Tenniel – Illustrator of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through The Looking Glass'. Lewis Carroll specifically chose Tenniel because of his allegorical, grown-up fantasy 'Big Cut' political cartoons from Punch – another layer of meaning to his readers already familiar with Tenniel through Punch.

Bernard Partidge – A worthy successor to Tenniel as the chief cartoonist, the political protagonists in his Big Cuts were theatrical send-ups brilliantly observed, but always focussed on the real message with a bold urgency. If in Tenniel's cartoons the message could be obscured by the fine detail, Partridge brought it to the fore with at times startling effect, and his work is one of the best examples of British propaganda in media.

Fougasse – Kenneth Bird discovered the name Fougasse while on active service in WWI (a landmine) and used it to differentiate between W. Bird (Jack Butler Yeates). Famous for government posters such as 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'.

David Langdon – Popular during WW2 for his public information posters 'Billy Brown of London Town'. Contributed to Punch for over 60 years.

George Adamson – Illustrator of Ted Hughes' books and winner of the P.G. Wodehouse Centenary Illustration Award, he drew hundreds of cartoons and many front covers over 50 years from 1939.

Norman Thelwell – Many published book collections including 'Angels on Horseback' and specialising in cartoons of girls on ponies and the countryside.

Trog (Wally Fawkes) – A renowned jazz musician and collaborator with Humphrey Lyttleton's band he drew beautifully realised, almost photorealistic colour caricatures of celebrities and politicians as well as front covers, which took over from the Big Cut political cartoon, in the 1970s.

Rowland Emett – Inventor of kinetic sculptures and designer for the machines in film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. His Punch 'Far Tottering' railway cartoons came to life at the Festival of Britain and at The Globe stage production 'Between The Lines' in 1951.

Alfred Bestall – Creator of Rupert the Bear and many great social cartoons in Punch. Drew the prototype for Winnie the Pooh in Punch for A.A. Milne before he decided on E.H. Shepard's version.

Caran d'Ache (Emmanuel Poire) – The pioneer of the first ever comic strip cartoons which later inspired Bateman and Fougasse, he drew one or two cartoons for Punch in the 1890s.

H.M. Bateman – Master of the strip cartoon that with bold and rounded line work brought his characters to life. Brilliant series of 'The Man Who' along with hundreds of laugh out loud sporting and leisure cartoons.

Jack Butler Yeats – Irish Modernist Expressionist artist. Drew several cartoons for Punch as W. Bird.

du Maurier

George du Maurier – Author of Trilby and Punch society cartoonist par excellence. Wonderful cartoon visionary of future inventions. Captured the absurdities of the Victorian middles classes.

Linley Sambourne – Great graphic cartoonist influenced by photography and a pioneering street photographer, or 'street blogger' of un-posed Edwardian women and their fashion with the use of a special periscope. Drew the political Big Cuts following John Tenniel's reign as Chief Cartoonist.

Leslie Illingworth – One of the best cartoonists and illustrators of the 20th century, with some truly epic backdrops for the Punch Big Cuts and savagely biting satire during WW2 and into the 1950s. Although ultimately an editorial decision by Malcolm Muggeridge, it was his 1954 cartoon that offended Winston Churchill, showing him at his desk with drooping mouth and fat hands.

Harry Rountree – A fine illustrator of children's books by Enid Blyton, and H.G. Wells. Also illustrated an edition of Alice in Wonderland and Aesop's Fables.

Arthur Rackham – One of the greatest fairytale illustrators of all time, his richly detailed cartoons for Punch convey his skills brilliantly. He illustrated editions of Aesop's Fables, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, Peer Gynt by Ibsen, The Valkyrie by Wagner, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson, and The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame.    

Quentin Blake – Knighted in 2012 and illustrator for several Roald Dahl books. Drew several excellent Punch covers.

Quentin Blake

 Humphrey Lyttleton – Renowned jazz musician and also cartoonist for Punch.

Ralph Steadman – Won several awards for illustration and worked with Ted Hughes, Hunter S. Thompson and Will Self. Produced some very interesting colour cartoons and front covers for Punch in the 1960s.

Gerald Scarfe – Influenced by Ronald Searle, Scarfe illustrated for Punch in the 1960s and went on to work with Pink Floyd for their 'The Wall' album, film and tour as well as the 'Yes Minister' TV series.

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle – Possibly the greatest and most celebrated cartoonist of the 20th century, creator of 'St Trinians' and collaborator with Geoffrey Willans for the Molesworth series of books. Drew some truly magnificent illustrations and cartoons for Punch such as the double spreads 'Heroes of Our Time' (1956-1957) featuring Sir Malcolm Sargent, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, Bertrand Russell, Princess Margaret etc and the savagely funny 'How To Kill A Man In Six Efforts'.

Andre Francois (Andre Farkas) – A unique talent and a painterly cartoonist he produced some of the best looking colour work and front covers for Punch, and designed theatre sets for Gene Kelly and Peter Hall.

Michael ffolkes – (Brian Davis). Wonderfully funny modern burlesque cartoons of naked ladies running about and surreal situations covering art, literature, business, leisure, the aristocracy and film reviews. A cartoon legend who contributed to Punch for five decades, from the 1940s until his death in 1988 and whose work is always fresh with the youthful vigour of life.

Mike Williams – A modern master of the cartoon with lovely line work including colour washes and off-kilter humour. His work is among the best examples of cartooning in Punch from the 1970s and 1980s.

Anne Harriet Fish - Very popular female cartoonist from 1920s, working for Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines and illustrating adverts. Her illustrations for the 'Eve' series of books were turned into silent films and her drawings about the middle classes in the 1920s are a good pre-cursor to Pont's British Character series of the 1930s. She was not the only female artist in Punch and not the earliest: Georgina Bowers was an excellent cartoonist from the 1860s and 1870s, and we find other great contributors continuing into the 20th century such as Antonia Yeoman (Anton), Sally Artz and Riana Duncan.

Famous guests interviewed in 'Passing Through':

Roger Moore,

Sean Connery,

Michael Cain,

Zsa Zsa Gaboor,

Mel Brooks,

Alice Cooper,

Gore Vidal,

George Cukor,

Shirley Maclaine,

Sidney Sheldon,

Lee Marvin,

Margot Fonteyn,

Marcel Marceau,

Henry Fonda,

Richard Harris,

Richard Chamberlain,

Ella Fitzgerald,

Charles Aznavour,

Telly Savalas,

Susannah York,

James Mason,

Billy Wilder,

Henry Mancini,

Arthur Ashe,

Dirk Bogarde,

Rod Steiger,

Victor Borge,

Michael York,

Jacqueline Bisset,

Jackie Collins,

Patricia Highsmith,

Ingrid Bergman,

John Wayne,

Liberace,

Engelbert Humperdinck,

Roy Orbison,

Jackie Stewart,

Robert Shaw,

Tony Curtis,

Jack Lemmon,

Tony Bennett,

Otto Preminger,

Graham Sutherland,

Joe Louis, T

hor Heyerdahl,

Eartha Kitt,

Sir Oswald Mosley,

Gracie Fields,

Luciano Pavarotti,

Robert Graves,

Alfred Hitchcock,

Frank Zappa,

George Best,

Bing Crosby,

David Attenborough,

Arthur C. Clarke,

Carl Sagan,

Christiaan Barnard,

John Mortimer,

Malcolm Muggeridge,

Frederick Forsyth,

Joseph Heller,

Norman Mailer,

John Updike,

Dave Allen,

Sophia Loren,

Andy Warhol,

Spike Milligan,

Charles Bronson,

Dustin Hoffman,

Herbert Lom,

Peter Ustinov,

Richard Branson,

Mikhail Gorbachev.

Andre Gailani,

Punch Limited

References

·        Thanks in the main to the excellent book 'The Punch Brotherhood' by Patrick Leary. The British Library (2010).

·        'Thoughts and Adventures' by Winston Churchill (orig. 1932; edited James W. Muller, ISI books 2009).

·        'A History of Punch' by R.G.G. Price. Collins (1957).

·        Thanks to http://publishing.monash.edu for quoting 'Drawing the Line - Using Cartoons as Historical Evidence' Edited by Richard Scully and Marian Quartly (2009)

·        Thanks also to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper quoting 'Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments', with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.

·        Adolph Menzel - 1815-1905: Between Romanticism and Impressionism Yale University (1996)

·        Chris Beetles Gallery

·        www.twainquotes.com

·        www.greatwar.co.uk

My huge thanks once again to Andre of Punch (www.punch.co.uk) for the brilliant article above.

Lastly, if I may urge you all to go forth into your local antique bookshop or eBay and seek out an old edition of Punch I know it will be worth your while! For quite little money you can pick up a century-old piece of work full of great humour and magnificent drawings!

“To Promote the Health and Cleanliness of the Working Classes…” Or: Victorian Public Baths and Liverpool’s “Saint of the Slums”:

As you can well imagine, health, hygiene and cleanliness in the nineteenth century city was far below the standards we are used to today. This lack of public sanitation led to outbreaks of disease – particularly amongst the poor in their crammed slums – in Britain’s Victorian cities.

In an attempt to combat these conditions of squalor and filth, parishes opened public baths, which were exactly as you’d expect; buildings in poor neighbourhoods where poor people could wash themselves and their clothes. The first of these appeared in Liverpool in 1828, when the Corporation of Liverpool opened a salt-water bath at St. George’s Pier Head, but it wasn’t until the 1840’s that public baths and wash-houses really took off in earnest, with the first fresh, warm water public bath being opened on Frederick Street in Liverpool in 1842.

Two years later the Association for Promoting Cleanliness Among the Poor was founded, and set about establishing bath and laundry houses in London. The first appeared in Glass House Yard, East Smithfield, and for the price of a penny each the poor could bathe and wash themselves. Cleanliness at home was also encouraged and to help with this the APCA handed out whitewash (an extremely cheap and mildly antibacterial white paint containing lime) and paintbrushes so the poor could paint the walls of their tenements, rooms or filthy garrets clean.

The East Smithfield bath proved a success, with over 85,000 people utilizing the facility in the space of a year. This triumph lead to the passing of the Public Baths and Wash Houses Act in 1846, which promised “To promote the health and cleanliness of the working classes, and as a necessary consequence, improve their social condition and raise their moral tone, thereby, tendering them more accessible to and better fitted to receive religious and secular training.” The act also – perhaps more importantly – gave parishes the power to raise money to provide more public wash houses, and so inevitably, following on from the success of the Smithfield bath, more quickly followed in London.

The first “model” baths opened in 1847 in Goulston Square, Whitechapel, and by 1851 seven parishes had raised enough money through ratepayers to open public baths, including St. Pancras, Marylebone and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. In 1850 the Whitechapel, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Marylebone baths were used by a combined total of half a million people.

Of course, public baths and whitewashing alone could not stop the spread of diseases, and it was one such outbreak that sowed the seed for the public bath and wash house movement to be born in Liverpool. An 1832 cholera epidemic in the city saw one plucky citizen rise to prominence in the war on slum diseases. 

Kitty Wilkinson was born Catherine Seaward in Ireland in 1786 but at the age of nine left the emerald isle with her parents and sister and set sail for a new life in Liverpool. As they approached the city their boat capsized. Kitty and her mother made it to Liverpool, but her father and sister were swept out to sea, never to be seen again. They were alone and destitute.

At twelve she made her way to Lancashire and found work in a cotton mill as an apprentice- notoriously hard and dangerous work – before returning to her mother in Liverpool eight years later in 1806, at which time they both went into domestic service. In 1812 Kitty, then aged twenty six, married French sailor Emanuel Demontee. They had two children, but before the second was born the sea once again cruelly struck Kitty’s life; taking her husband whilst he was on duty aboard a ship and leaving her widowed and her children without a father. The incident must have brought back painful memories. Following Emanuel’s death she returned to domestic service, but this did not last long.

Kitty Wilkinson

She had acquired a mangle as a gift and soon put it to good use, setting herself up as a laundress to support her two children, as well as her mother with whom she still lived. She married again in 1823, this time to warehouse porter Tom Wilkinson (from whom she takes her now familiar name), and lead an otherwise uneventful life. 

For nine years at least.

And so the cholera epidemic struck Liverpool in 1832, and Kitty – being the only person in her neighbourhood with a boiler – quickly took matters into her own hands by inviting people from her street to use it to wash their clothes and linen. She also showed them how to use chloride of lime (bleach powder) to clean them. Effectively this was the first example of a public wash house, and Kitty’s actions saved who-knows-how-many lives during the outbreak.

After seeing the success of her wash house, and how effective her methods of combating disease had been, Kitty began to campaign for the opening of public baths in the city so the poor could continue to wash themselves. Her deeds had been noticed by Liverpool councilor and future mayor of the city, William Rathbone, who supported her initiative, which was ultimately successful, leading as it did to the aforementioned Frederick Street baths, of which Kitty was appointed superintendent.

Kitty, whose work earned her the nickname ‘The Saint of the Slums’ died in 1860 at the age of seventy four, and is buried in St. James Cemetery.

In September 2012 a statue of Kitty Wilkinson was unveiled in Liverpool’s St. George’s Hall, where the working class former cotton mill worker and domestic servant sits alongside fellow eminent Liverpudlians such as William Roscoe, Robert Peel, George Stephenson and Gladstone. Kitty’s statue is the first in the hall of a female.

In 1910 a memoir of Kitty’s life was published entitled ‘The Life of Kitty Wilkinson, a Lancashire Heroine’ written by Winifred Rathbone, and in 1927, Herbert Rathbone, the great nephew of councilor William Rathbone published ‘A Memoir of Kitty Wilkinson of Liverpool, 1786-1860: with a short account of Thomas Wilkinson, her husband’

Any Kindle owners interested in knowing more about Kitty may be interested in Michael Kelly's eBook, 'The Life of Kitty Wilkinson' available on Amazon here at a very reasonable price.

“Trow at Once ran to the Canal and Jumped in to the Rescue…” Or: The Heroics of a Victorian Tram Conductor:

In the 1700’s, at the height of the industrial revolution, canals cut across the green and pleasant land of Britain. They were to the 1760’s what railways were to the 1860’s; the veins of commerce pumping life from city to city, keeping the heart of industry pumping. Canals were densely packed virtually all the way from Liverpool to London via all the big manufacturing centres such as Birmingham and Sheffield in order to transport large materials or items in a mass and speed that was unachievable on roads at the time, especially for large freight such as coal (the price of which dropped dramatically once it could be transported in bulk by canal, as opposed to the more costly, time consuming and inefficient transport by road) When the railways came, however, the efficacy of the canal was trumped. Trains were much faster and could carry even more freight. In time, transport of goods via train became cheaper, too, and use of the canals declined.

Throughout England’s history, 56 canals have been abandoned, either reclaimed by nature, left as water-less ditches or filled in and urbanized. One such abandoned canal was the Newcastle-under-Lyme canal in Staffordshire. But why have I decided to write about a canal that was opened in 1800 and officially closed in 1935? What on earth is Victorian about that? Well, sometimes I find it can be more fun researching 19^th century events that are a little lesser known to the greater world. I find it can add fine detail and almost ‘humanize’ the behemoth that is the Victorian period if a little story like this is examined rather than a big story, such as, say, a war.

So, why am I writing about a now-disused canal in Staffordshire?

Well, in April 1894 the canal witnessed an act of Victorian heroism that is still commemorated in the area to this day.

The Newcastle-under-Lyme canal ran alongside London Road in Hanley, Staffordshire (although now there is no trace of it) and this road was served by a tram. On 13^th April 1894, the conductor of the tram was twenty-two year old local man Timothy Trow, and as his tram approached London road, four-year-old Jane Ridgeway was playing on the towpath…

Richard H. Weir, in his 1980’s Staffordshire-themed book ‘Six of the Best: A Potteries Companion’ describes the events that took place next:

‘Imagine the scene in 1894. In those days London Road was a cobbled highway, resounding to the screech of steam-trams as they slowed to a halt near this spot. Between pavement and water's edge were iron railings and a row of tall trees. As a tram drew close at 4 o'clock, one April afternoon, its young conductor heard screams coming from the canal. He looked up and, seeing a little girl, terrified and flailing desperately to stay afloat, wasted no time in vaulting the railings and plunging into the chill water to her rescue. By fate's intervention, he was tragically seized by a violent cramp and sank like a stone to the bottom. The child was later pulled out alive.’

A more detailed – if less pleasing to the imagination – version of the incident was reported in a midlands newspaper three days later following the coroner’s inquest:

STOKE-ON-TRENT

The Sad Death of a Tramway Conductor.

On Saturday Mr. J. Booth (coroner) held an inquest on the body of Timothy Trow (22), a conductor in the employ of the North Staffordshire Tramways Company, who met with his death while attempting to save a child from drowning. The previous afternoon deceased was in charge of the car working on the London Road section of the tramways. About a Quarter past four o'clock, just as the car was about to start from the West End terminus, attention was attracted by the sound of a splash in the adjoining canal, and on observing that a little girl had fallen into the water, Trow at once ran to the canal and jumped in to the rescue. He walked part of the way across, until be was up to the waist, when he suddenly sank very much deeper, and called out to his fellow workman, the engine driver, that he had the cramp. He appeared to become helpless, and a Mr. Henry Lloyd, of Berresford Street, Shelton, entered the canal to his assistance.

Deceased got hold of and struggled with to Lloyd, who was ultimately obliged to leave him to ensure his own safety, and Lloyd, being also seized with cramp, had to he assisted on to the towing-path. In the meantime the child had been rescued by John Forrester, of Wellesley Street, Shelton, who also made an attempt to reach the deceased, but without avail. Everything, in fact, was done to rescue Trow, but the efforts proved futile, and the body of the deceased was not recovered until about half an hour later.

The Coroner said that there could be no doubt that Trow lost his life in an heroic attempt to save that of the child, and appeared equally clear that the conduct of the other persons present when this distressing fatality occurred was very laudable.

The Jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”

            - Birmingham Daily Post, April 16^th 1894

Such was the empathy of local people for Trow’s actions they collected money for a memorial to be erected to remember him. The obelisk is still standing today, as can be seen below, sitting next to where the towpath of the canal would have been until 1935.

The Obelisk on London Road Today

 So there we have a tiny piece of the nineteenth century jigsaw to add to the whole wonderful patchwork puzzle. Old newspapers can be an excellent source to find stories such as these, and even lesser stories, long forgotten by everyone, but which deeply affected people at the time they happened. I know its something I keep saying, but if you like history and enjoy researching, then I do recommend you try and get hold of an old newspaper and scan through the pages, it’s a great way to pass an hour or two!

“What Can I give Him, Poor as I am?” Or: Christina Rossetti & Our First Christmas Poem for 2012:

Christmas is almost upon us again, and I find myself in the familiar place of bringing you little-known Victorian Christmas poetry as has become my custom here for the last couple of years. However, for my first Christmas poem this year (last week’s was only a poem about winter) I have decided to opt for a piece of poetry by someone famous.

My usual source for Christmas poetry is Victorian periodicals, which published poems by members of the public, aspiring writers and little-known published writers alike. I must reiterate here that I am not into poetry, but I can appreciate a simple poem, and I find something a little more sincere and interesting about poetry written by non-famous Victorians.

That said, I have chosen to usher in the Christmas season this year with quite a famous poem by quite a famous Victorian poet.

Born in London in 1830, Christina Rossetti was, as you may have guessed, if you don’t already know, the sister of the great pre-Raphelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as of the writer and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood William Michael Rossetti and author Maria Francesca Rossetti. She was the youngest child in this great artistic family; and as well as her talented siblings, her father was an Italian poet, and her mother, whilst not herself of an artistic bent, was the sister of John William Polidori – the author of one of the first English vampire stories, The Vampyre, in 1819.

Christina, growing up in a household overflowing with artistic ideas, soon began to show promise as a poet. By the age of twelve she had written a book of poetry, and by eighteen she had published her first two poems (Death’s Chill Between and Heart’s Chill Between) in the literary magazine Athenaeum. Many of her early poems focused on death and loss and were somewhat melancholy. When she was nineteen Christina began contributing poems to the (ultimately unsuccessful) Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyn.

Christina Rossetti by Dante Rossetti, 1866

Goblin Market and Other Poems – by far her most famous collection – was first published in 1862, when Christina was thirty-one. This was her first work widely available to the public and proved to be very successful, receiving critical acclaim from, not only the press, but eminent and popular poets of the day, including Tennyson. In the year prior to the release of Goblin Market the great female poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning had died in Italy, leaving her place as Britain’s premier female poet vacant. The success of Goblin Market and Other Poems saw Christina take on that mantle, becoming the most popular female poet in the country, although she never quite reached the same heights of fame and popularity as Browning.

Christina sat as a model for her brother, Dante, for some of his best known paintings, including his first oil painting The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, for which, at the age of eighteen, she was the model for the Virgin Mary. This painting was was the first instance of a piece of work bearing the initials ‘PRB’, which signified the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood.

In the paintings it is quite plain to see that she was a handsome woman; despite this, as well as her great talent, Christina never married. She was engaged to James Collinson, a painter and founding member of the pre Raphaelite Brotherhood, but his converting back to Catholicism following a crisis of conscience (having reverted to Anglicanism in order to marry Christina) caused staunch Anglican Christina to end the relationship in 1850. She also turned down the hand of Charles Cayley – the linguist best known for his translations of the work of Dante Alighieri – on religious grounds, and also the offer of painter and agnostic John Brett.

'The Girlhood of Mary Virgin' by Dante Rossetti, 1848

From 1859 until 1870 she volunteered at the St Mary Magdelene House of Charity in Highgate, which was a refuge for former prostitutes. Her experiences here with the fallen women lead many to believe the idea for her poem Goblin Market – the protagonists of which are two sisters, and there being a distinct undercurrent of sexual imagery throughout – to have been born there.

In the early 1870’s Christina was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, a thyroid disorder that includes insomnia, palpitations and hair and weight loss amongst a long list of possible symptoms. By the 1880’s the bouts of the disease had become so severe that she was made an invalid, but she continued to write. The following decade saw further health complications when, in 1893 she developed breast cancer. The tumour was removed, but returned in September 1894. Three months later she died in London.

Christina is buried in the Rossetti family plot in Highgate Cemetery West.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti, c. 1872

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air,

But only His mother

In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man

I would do my part,

Yet what I can I give Him,

Give my heart.

Christina never achieved the heady heights of success – in life or after – that her brother Dante did, but she did leave behind a body of work, which, unlike a lot of nineteenth century poetry, is quite accessible and enjoyable to read, particularly the fairy-tale-esque Goblin Market.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Pre Raphaelites, or seeing their work, the Tate is currently running an exhibition entitled ‘Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde’ but hurry, the exhibition ends on 13th January! See details here: