Leslie Gilbert Illingworth

Leslie Gilbert Illingworth (2 September 1902 – 20 December 1979) was a Welsh political cartoonist best known for his work for the Daily Mail and for becoming the chief cartoonist at the British satirical periodical Punch.

Early history Illingworth was born on 2 September 1902 in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales in 1902 to Frederick and Helen MacGregor Illingworth. His father, who was originally from Yorkshire, was a clerk at the engineers' department for Barry Railway & Docks Company while his mother was a teacher. As a child Illingworth attended the Church School of St Athan, before winning a scholarship to the local grammar school in Barry. From Barry County School he found work at the lithographic department at the Western Mail, mainly due to the fact that his father played golf with the chief executive of the paper, Sir Robert J. Webber.

As a cartoonist Whilst working at the Western Mail, Illingworth also attended the Cardiff School of Arts, to which he had won a scholarship. Having already seen some of his artwork published in the Football Express before attending College, he now found himself drawing cartoons for the Western Mail and took on the role of deputising for the paper's celebrated political cartoonist J. M. Staniforth. In 1920 Illingworth won a further scholarship, this time to the Royal College of Art in London. He moved to the capital, but after just a few months he received news that Staniforth had died and he was offered the post of political cartoonist on the Western Mail, and he returned to Wales as Staniforth's replacement. After just three weeks in Cardiff he returned to London to study at the Slade School of Art, but he continued to be employed by the Western Mail. Illingworth was voted Political and Social Cartoonist of the year by The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain in 1962 and in 1966 he was a founding member of the British Cartoonists' Association and became the organisation's first President. In 2009, Timothy S. Benson published the first biography of Leslie Illingworth entitled 'Illingworth: Political Cartoons from the Daily Mail 1939 - 69'.