laststandonzombieisland

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Leslie Gilbert Illingworth

Born 1902 in Wales, Leslie Gilbert Illingworth took a job as a teen in the lithographic department at the Western Mail while attending the Cardiff School or Art. While at the Mail he was an assistant to noted political cartoonist J. M. Staniforth who covered political and social unrest in the UK and Wales through the First World War. After the War, Illingworth attended the Royal College of Art then took Staniforth’s old job when the master retired. He later went to write for Punch and, in 1938 when the noted Percy Fearon retired as cartoonist of the Daily Mail, Illingworth joined the big leagues just in time for the Second World War where he really came into his own.

Although he wasn’t per se a “military artist,” he covered (with dry British satire) the military events of his day.

Freedom 1940

Japan’s army arrives at New Guinea, 1942. Note the cricket bat dropped at the ‘Roo’s feet

Spirit of the Ark Royal, sunk in 1941

Free French

Stalingrad

Neutrality Patrol March 1941

Japan enters the war 1941

After the war he continued his work, but still revisited military issues as they pertained to the overall political climate

German rearmament 1950

Berlin 5 April 1948. Note the Atom Bomb on Truman’s GI belt

Illingworth remained active through 1974 when he finally retired. He was the inaugural president of the British Cartoonists’ Association and his art was some of the most stinging of the 20th Century.

He died 20 December 1979 at age 77.

Thank you for your work, sir.