1960-10-01 — Page 11

HE GAVE US THE BETTER 'OLE'

Captain Bruce Bairnsfather

London Letter

British soldier who regarded the supermen in the German french Min. ca a Agure of perverted Bruce hud skroady drawn several pletures for the Bystander but ÖN BIN made him a world

TT is just possible that some of the younger read- ers have heard of Bruce Bairnsfather and his immortal "Old Bill" of the 1914/1918 war. Let me admit that for many years I had heard no mention of his name and, indeed, was unaware whether he was alive or had joined the gods on Valhalla.

But as it happened I recently travelled by by SIR BEVERLEY BAXTER, M.P. the sensitivity of the artist. It are two hairy British train through the lovely countryside of Oxford- shire to the town of Worcester where I was to speak at the dinner in the Guildhall given by the Worcester Anglo-American Fellowship in honour of the American bombing squadrons stationed just outside the ancient town.

Here were the tall Americans In their uniforms, accompanied

Ja the

by their smart, pretty wives, that a revue called "The Better drawn from the land of the frez Ole" was produced and had a

Tong ruta. Somehow and the dollar. If there is to trenches Bairnsfathe continued be a next time the Americans to draw Old Hill pictures that #ppeared to our joy In the BYSTANDER MAGAZINE,

will strike with a swiftness that will be like a bolt of lightning.

"Old Bill""

Bruce Bairnsfather! Which of

was

wai

Quiet and modest I went on the Terrace and ask

As it was a lovely warm day d the attendant to send Cap- uth Barnsfather lo join me there.

hus

This, or equrse, is not only figure. the truth but is pure Dickens. "But this man was more than a Unknown to himself this boy, cartoonist, Take h famous Bruce Barnafather was feeling drawing -- there in the trench tommies might have been David Copper- complete with magnificent neld protesting against the walrus moustaches-Old Bill and slavery of the bottle works as a his gloomy complaining pal. The

grouser

obviously been Now I would see the incarna wagging and it seemed once boy.

But under the loughness and taking It-out on the bloody hole creative with more that here was a tion of the early Briton the preposterous moustache, the artist who had nothing really in roughness of the school he was in which they are crouching with the character, discovering his real self. "My while bursting shells play havoc warrior who looked like a pub- commen

desire to draw and paint re all about them. At last the keeper, the comle who laughed which he had created.

and 1 con- patience of Old Bill is exhausted in No-nian's Land. Every And then suddenly he threw mained unobated author reproduces himself in off his diffidence and at my re- tinued to gratify it in and out and with magnificent disdain de- realisation clares: "Well, if yer know of a one for or another and now I quest began the story of himself of doors. With the

unknown urlist better 'ole, go to 11,"

sell his The drawing duly appeared in would see not only Old, Bill but and his brain-child, Old Bill. that even an

Here then is the epic of a man must, ent be used lo his creator.

who broke every rule in a suc- throwings for half a crown of the Bystander and Britnin rock- five bob to his fellow students ed with laughter. Yet behind which borders on Immortality. resa story and acquired a fame

which indientes that his fellow the humour and the comle genlus there was the His father was Seetch, his ludents were not lacking is the of the drawing

artist's feeling of pity towards these two mother was English, and he was civilised niceties.

EZ cheque

cockney orlinna of bora in the Himalayas under

primitive surroundings. But he wanted to reach a the storm, caught in the fell Some minutes passed and the very Terrace was becoming populated Eventually returning to England wider publie than his school clutch of circumstance,

But why has the genius of After many

outlived? Surely willy various types, drawn out he was sent to the United Ser-mates. of deors by the warming sun, vices College nt Westward Ho templs he executed a design for Bairnsluther Bruce The youthful

was Player's Navy Tabacco mixture he answer is that his drawings was one who stood but there rather shyly by himself., He leared about one thing. Rud- and had it accepted, "My pritle were based on Truth, word Kipling had also gone to and excitement bordered on the them gave expression had a quiet, modest manner ant

difdent. seemed rather

But the Untist Services College, incano," he said. "I kept that Brush soldier who finds humour Dickens where in the

Actually it is an acceptert fact cheque in my pockets for in the very hell of horror. Barnsfather?

that the Immortal Kipling used weeks, producing it on every

The Germans, in the 1914 wor the College as the setting for his possible cocasion, until I thought "Stalky and Co."

I'd better cash it, while it was were real soldiers, goose-sicppkig still intact."

and proclaiming the glory of The As he had shown no promise In their all conquering race, ything else i was decided that British soldiers remained clvi- he should take the Army as ans even ze they fought and Old Bill career, and eventually his died. That is why

the incarnation of the litery training came to an end. was Switly he polsed the dilemma British Tommy

was

"Bloody good"

false at-

Memories

Dod in

to the

It was a pleasant and ple turesque dinner with speeches Then in 1018 came the great that were not too long and peace that was to lust for ever, fiquld refreshment in the true The Kaiser's Germany tradition of hospitality. Then in prostrate, France Wus alive a single sentence our host sent again, Communist Russia my mind whirling back to the a problem, but on the whole life was good and "Old Bl." Ite You know" he said, that the rest of our generation, had forgotten years.

to the mundane Bruce Bairnsfather lives here in returneri

normality of peace, Worcester."

With these thoughts fa my Yes, you are quite right. That man with mind 1 procured Bairrisfather's modest, unobtrusive

librarian look was the returning from the as whe Hived through the 1814 address, after

trying to find war could ever forget those car- Worcester, and wrote him a let inmortal B.B.

"I never dreamed then," said toons of "Old Bu"? The phrasie ter inviting him to inch with the mortal B.B. whe had asked

So we made Bruce, "that I would live to see "Well, it ver know of a better me at the House of Commons: him to lunch.

Kipling would 'ole go to it" became part of our 11e chily accepted and so it was contact, yet not even a glass of the day when

his popular arranged.

mild sherry sent tongue come round to an exhibition of language.

my drawings and deliver the

1 his own judgment and for his lested in the very laws of death. verdlet: Bloody good!"

Memories ure short, and the But it seems that the Kipling own decision. He did not want episode WUS Br exception. a sword in his hand, he wanted personalities of a war are soon stridency of Bairnsfather was not doing well a Bencil. Being au oficer the forgotten in the at school. He kept on drawing Army offered him security at pecce. Yet unknown and unsus- And peeled by himself Barnafather quaint little agures when he any rate in peace lime. should have been learning after many years he could then had created in Old Rill a char- neler which did not disappent Latin. Worse than that he drew retire and take up his pencil.

maucous pipes of cartoons of his fellow students. "Instead I decided to quit the when the Then one day he was knocked Army and take my chance," he peace replaced the hideous dis- out by blow to the chin. He said. He was then 18 years of cord of war. made the elementary mistake age.

Grouser of drawing a cartoon of the chief bully,

A at Wittering, Chinnery, his co- valimi prifat, Ewo navrators and air captain, Geoff Rushforth, and electron ufficer reported to fi caption, Ben Benbow,

This the Operations Centre.

joined the RAF as apprentices a larg, square bufiding with and. The their navigators, Pat High, light rooms, lem polished non From Southsen, Wild carricle.rs Latel the drushed Greg Mitchell, from Purley, are emeiney of a hospital.

married.

The youngest, Robin Brown, the electronics officer is, al 26. a rully lively pachelor, a motor

that. rathusiast who maintains after 140 A man remains a

unteers then opened a - Tocket door marked "Vault" and from a Aing system, behind steel doors and combination leaks, took weighty dossiers. These were taken to the crew, walling in a rom lit

Meeting these five was rather by barred. frosted glass like entering il windows near the ceiling,

steady 10 years younger than a givision of his age,

It was so

ONE MAN'S

SHOES AND THEIR

MESSAGE

FOR

MANHATTAN

Leopoldville.

GROUP of Congolese sat down confidently at the table of an hotel in Luluabourg, capital of the Kasai province in the heart of the Congo. They were celebrating their newly-won independence; their clothes were of good quality, they wore expensive watches, and their huge brand-new American limousine waited grandly outside for their return. It was only when the men began to spread the butter with forks and spoons that people looked a little closer. Then it was observed that one diner wore shoes of different colour.

One of the ladies at the table wore only corsel braasicru above her waist, setting a new and starting Inshion.

They were in fact just

by

articularly anot! loot party whoop, DONALD

close-kn}! family of which

The officers locked the door Bushforth was undisputed head. ing it up in Luluabourg, behind them and the first t Just then they were standing

hundreds of Bours of "strategie by for a sight to Bermuda. Vin the once lovely city built SEAMAN

target stuules" began.

Like

all the

say

dlusky

Labrador, and there was a

beach up in our lifetime from the other crews family joke about Ben during her ve years in the combing, equipped with, a mint V-force, Chinnery and his four julep and a West Indian mald. bush and jungle-where comptes spend much time "Dld that locked room. But once the door 1s unlucked-from the out- side the subject they discussed su exhaustively is never men- done:l

"usky" "Both of course! today anyone can walk in

In the lofty briefing hall five

Unce

other crews are preparing for a and help himself to an night exercise that Will take them st

round

the empty apartment and the island"-a wide sweep up the If the crews ever have to

east coast, then westward out contents therein. refer to the possibility of a real nuclear strike they simply into the Atlantic and home up the Bristol Channel together say.

"If we have to go with mek attacks by rudar on

atomic bomb The hydrogen or

is called Swaffham, Liverpool and New- they would deliver

castle. simply "The weapon."

THE MEN

What effect do these secrets huve un

who must keep it? sort of men are they?

grim

the men And what

The navigators have already sport about six hours with thelf charts, mathematical tables and circular "silde rules for the light.

'SIMPLE'

Squatters

You see women, ludicrous as stumble along hi shoes too small for their broad feet and dresses tailor-made for slimmer, European gures.

One woman I saw solved the lem by cutting the backs off. "my feet are killing me" prob

Thankless tasks

Why? The Kusal didn't think It was their ob to supply i

Take the prisons, They held 1,100 prisoners when indepen- dence came. Seven hundred convicts went "over the wall" that night in the biggest prison break of all time, and no one has bothered to look for them since.

Why? Because the Каза Government cannot feed them. The 400 sill inside-and sen- labour-are lenced to hard getting dangerously near starva- flun fevel.

an ounce

The brigands

On one day recently they ale nothing at all. Next dey cow, which someore sent in n

of this week On another day was slaughtered and shared.

prisoner of varied diet each

of was given half meat und come ounces of corn- The tragedy of Laubourg

flour. They lie in jul all day and all the Congo is that nothing

Lulusbourg I just a ghost and do nothing.

Outside the city limits law -absolutely nothing in ever

continues.

The done in the way of maintenance. town now with only 200 Europ-lessness

Tunisians do splendid work, Clothes are worn till they fall in left of its pre-independence

but they cannot be everywhere. opurt, Cers

and total of 3,000. stolen ure

Two men more than any driven if they break down-in some cases just 1 they run others in the town are playing Canute in this opd tide of preparing out of petroli

ignorance, trying desperately to get some semblance of normality

Recently, when I moved restored.

calla for Nations through Luluabourg They

United are

the tiny Administrator Gustavo Duran, a help ease in from Squatters move in to beauti- 53-year-old naturalised Ameri- European population at Mwekn. one another 221

ful apartments and proceed to can who runs the civil side, and halfway along the road from nn ecclesiastical lectern it be pile a month's garbage outside a tough old desert warrior, Port Francqui to Lulusbourg. cuines apparent that, apart

Tunisian Colonel Bou-Zalanc Local troops-hungry and out fort- There was only one Cranwell from the meteorological

Lamar, who keeps law and of hand und described as platn Men who were magis order.

"brigands" ut UNO head... boy: Only Fix bachelors. Fewer costs, the instructions for flying thun half a dozen few during a 1,000,000 nuclear bomber

I personally admire both men, quarters-rounded up the Euro clerka the layinan incompro- trates' the war, although a few bomb- are to

all their few but I wouldn't have their jobs peans and demanded

for anything thankless jobs

An soon as Colonel Lashmar among a sullen population who food, clothes, and liquor. have been led to believe that

heard of it he ordered his Fines are im with independence you got

surround the Con- everything handed to you on a troops to

golese and open fire unless they There is a lot of unemploy- went back to their barracks ment and the figure is growing. Immediately. They did.

But how can, you get into A lot of balles are empty

and unless regular ear the economy of any coun- Although V-bomber crews are The post does not work any already, given no polllient indoctrination more. You cannot send a cable employment is found there will iry run on those lines?

People who are now in there are courses of lectures by from the post office no mutter be more and more trouble. authorities on current, affairs how much you pay.

on

Chinnery scanned the names The 11 aircrew list,

average age was 28, he said.

the briefing officers With succeed langt

ed Erypt during the Suez war hensible.

ARTIE...

OF THE

CRAZY GANG

the door.

P

For the crew, it is more than months ago now dispense

an intricate technical ritual, it justice.”

Is a way of ilfe so all-absorbing

that Flight Lleutenant Rush posed without hearing or plate, forth can ay in all sincerity,

"What we have to do is very defence. simple, "

13

And the fault lies fair and

each winter anti in these they Buses do not run The shops square with the Kusal people are made fully aware of their are empty. You cannot take a themselves. Whatever the woolly Manhattan defending purpose as The Deterrent. So it night out and enjoy a cinema Leftists say back home em Congo independence will

assure you from on-the-spot was significant that when one show.

offeer at Wittering was speaking The gross is growing in the experience they just were

to me about the possibility of

nuclear war he began by anying "If we foll...

He meant, of course, it The Deterrent failed to deter. And that was TH

.

streets alrendy,

not ready for this double-edged say: "You can't stop pro- sword of independence.

greit." A train left to pick up cont heard of since.

four days ago and has not been Over the wall

Llobourg is hending back to

the bush-but fast,

in 1914 who

Bairnsfuther told me of his lerture tours in Canado which

Canado icok him to his heart and

But in 1014 a popinjay Gor- are a previous memory to him. Being a slender and not very man emperor with a burning even the Americans welcomed toll boy he hated being knocked vulty and a shriven arm was with enthusiasm this soft spoken about in the scrum of Rugby. drun with dreams of glory caricaturist with his pen of

to

"I Nothing

but war and victory

Like most men of courage

These are his own words: looked upon the

satisfy his cravings for genius. game mainly could in terms of shorting and strug- glory. Bruce Bairnsfather, who Bairnsfather is gentle at heart, gling among a lot of perspiring had given up a military, career, and like most men of genios he heads. arms and legs, belonging joined up at once and eventually is modest, This might well be

comparative and gigantic found himself in a ditch called a strangers. I shrank from the trench, facing the supermen of bis epitaph in the years sardine-like proximity of all the Germany. other heads and bodies. I never In the mud and the blood of eared who got the ball as long. Flanders the soldier-artist kept laughter to the nation even as it as someone would hurry up and his salty by greating with his shed its blood for the survival get it, and thus end the serum," pencil Old Bill-he moustached of human decency."

come!

"He

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This is not prograss. It

Таке

to

Ited the hospitais. officialo who

called backwards into the bush. trip during my

a whole nation walking

DRITISH

~(London Express Service).

In Lausbourg you see mon who would never pass a driving Cross

TOM POCOCK test ripping along the boulevards there

"No, dearmit's not UNO."

London Frozen. Horyion,

-{London Express Serulou),

in kixury dats, each one stolen Lalumbourg last week found all from the Belgians.

the patients were without food,

See your Travel Agent or Jardine's Airways Department, Telephone 35111/2 (24 hour service)

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"OVER ́SE^A

IRWAYS

FORATIO

ta

of