'The Pater'. Dutch-language version. Translation: Man: "Piepa, what would you do if your wife ran off with your chauffeur?" - Piepa: "Take another chauffeur."
Harold C. Earnshaw was an early 20th-century British cartoonist and illustrator. He often assisted his wife Mabel Lucie Attwell on her work, but also made cartoons and funny strips for magazines like The Bystander and The Tatler. His gag comic 'The Pater' (1928-1931) ran in the newspaper The Daily Mirror. After serving in the First World War, Earnshaw's post-war graphic career became even more remarkable, since he lost an arm and learned drawing and painting with his other.
Early life and career
Harold Cecil Earnshaw was born in 1866 in Woodford, Essex, as the son of a bank clerk. He was known as "Pat" to his friends. Earnshaw received his artistic education at St. Martin's School of Art in Long Acre, London, where he also met his future wife, illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell. The couple married in 1908. They worked on several illustration assignments together, with Earnshaw mostly taking care of animals and backgrounds.
A member of the London Sketch Club since 1908, Earnshaw was an illustrator in his own right. His earliest work include color illustrations for school stories like 'The Pretenders' by Meredith Fletcher (1907) and 'The Willoughby Captains' by Talbot Baines Reed (1907). He continued to work on a great many story and educational books for the publishers W. & R. Chambers, and Henry Frowde, Hodder & Stoughton. He also provided illustrations to Cassell's Magazine, Printers' Pie, The Pall Mall Magazine, The Boy's Own Paper, The Red Magazine, The Yellow Magazine, The Graphic and The Bystander.
Illustration from the 'Sherlock Holmes' novel 'The Sign of Four' (1912), and a cover for The Passing Show (9 October 1920).
World War I and post-war graphic career
In 1914, the First World War broke out. Earnshaw served with the Artists' Rifles, enlisting with the Royal Sussex Regiment as a Lance Corporal in November 1915. During the infamous Battle of the Somme, on 13 February 1917, an exploding shell ripped off his right arm, injured him in the back and in one of his legs. While other artists would've regarded this as a career-ending injury, Earnshaw trained himself to draw, paint and write his left hand. Only five months after losing his arm, the magazine The Graphic published a series of drawings from his sketchbook, chronicling his experiences in a war hospital. Earnshaw also purchased an artificial hand, a mahl stick holder (to hold his hand while painting) and a device to hold a snooker cue.
He would continue his graphic career after his military service, contributing many cartoons, comics and illustrations to The Illustrated London News, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Little Folks, The Passing Show, The Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, The Sketch, The Sphere and The Tatler. He also designed humorous postcards and made book illustrations for former clients and new publishers, like Blackie & Son and Thomas Nelson & Sons. His most notable association was with novelist Elsie J. Oxenham, for whom he livened up six of her books with illustrations. Earnshaw was also active as a watercolor painter and a member of the Chelsea Arts Club.
'The Pater', The Daily Mirror, 8 July 1930.
The Pater
Between 10 December 1928 and 28 February 1931, Earnshaw had a comic strip in The Daily Mirror called 'The Pater', which ran from 10 December 1928 until 28 February 1931. The title character is a monocle-wearing man featured in humorous situations following a straightforward joke format. The comedy is predominantly verbal.
Final years and death
From 1932 on, Harold Earnshaw spent his final years living in Kensington, Sussex, Eastbourne and London, while his production rapidly declined in the 1920s. Earnshaw never fully recovered from his war time injuries. He was given medicine to cope with his pains which, in combination with alcohol, led to an incident on 26 February 1935 where he was arrested for public drunkenness. Earnshaw was so intoxicated that he couldn't even remember being drunk afterwards. Previously, his wife had already tried to counter his alcoholism by reducing the amount of money she gave him. The police eventually fined him ten shillings.
Earnshaw passed away in 1937 in Kensington, at the age of 51. Compared with his wife, Mabel Lucie Attwell, he never reached the same enduring fame.
His daughter Peggy Wickham was also active as an illustrator.
World War I illustrations from The Graphic (1917).