Comic strip for Punch, 23 December 1914.
Frederick Henry Townsend, also known by his initials F.H. Townsend, was a late 19th-century, early 20th-century British cartoonist and illustrator. He is best remembered for his work in Punch and as an original illustrator of Oscar Wilde's novels, among other classic 19th-century authors. His most iconic cartoon is 'No Thoroughfare', AKA 'Bravo, Belgium' (1914), made in admiration for the Belgian resistance during the First World War.
Early life
Frederick Henry Townsend was born in 1868 in London and studied at the South London Technical Art School in Kennington Park Road. Some of his co-students, Leonard Raven-Hill, Charles Ricketts, Reginald Savage, Charles Shannon and Arthur Rackham, would later become famous illustrators in their own right. Townsend's prime graphic influence was Edwin Austin Abbey. In 1887, Townsend contributed to a short-lived magazine: Sunlight. From 1889 on, for about a decade, he worked for the Illustrated London News. He additionally contributed to magazines and papers like The Daily Graphic, the Idler, News Chronicle, the Pall Mall Gazette, the Strand Magazine and the Tatler.
Illustration work
As an illustrator, Townsend is best remembered for illustrating the original editions of Oscar Wilde's 'The Canterville Ghost' and 'The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile', serialized in 1887 in The Court and Society Review. He also livened up the pages of various novels by Baron de Bazancourt ('Secrets de l'Épée', 1900), Charlotte Brontë (the second edition of 'Jane Eyre', from 1897), Gerald Campbell, Charles Dickens ('A Tale of Two Cities', 1897 edition, 'A Child's History of England', 1905 edition), Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Sign of the Four' (1903), Nathaniel Hawthorne ('The House of the Seven Gables'), Sara Jeannette Duncan ('A Social Departure', 1890), Rudyard Kipling ('They', 1906), L.T. Meade ('Jill, a Flower Girl', 1892), Thomas Love Peacock ('Gryll Grange', 1896), Walter Scott ('Rob Roy'), Matthew Sturgis' 'Oscar a Life', H.G. Wells' 'Select Conversations with an Uncle, now Extinct' and Israel Zangwill ('The Old Maids' Club', 1892).
Illustrations from 'The Canterville Ghost'.
Punch
In 1896, Townsend joined the popular and influential British cartoon magazine Punch. In 1905, he became their very first art editor. As a cartoonist, he was responsible for the 'Parliamentary Sketches' column, a series of cartoons which ridiculed politicians in the London Parliament.
His most famous cartoon for Punch is 'No Thoroughfare', better known under its caption "Bravo, Belgium" (12 August 1914). The cartoon shows an old man with sausages and a big stick (Germany) threatening a little boy (Belgium) defending a fence. It alludes to the German invasion of Belgium during the then ongoing First World War. Much to the Germans' surprise and the English' admiration, the Belgian army managed to fend off the German soldiers far longer than they'd anticipated. They even kept part of their country behind the river Yser (IJzer) free from occupation during the entire war. In 1933, another Punch cartoonist, George Morrow, paid tribute to Towsend's iconic cartoon by making Austria the little boy and Hitler the man with the huge stick.
On 23 December 1914, Townsend made a four-panel text comic for Punch promoting the draft. The comic strip takes place in a train or a streetcar. We see a majestic woman accidentally stepping on a young man's foot. He screams in pain, yet afterwards politely denies that he felt anything . At first, the woman seems to think nothing of it, but after a moment's pause she asks him rather aggressively why he isn't at the front, if he can stand pain like that.
Final years and death
F.H. Townsend was one of the earliest members of the Chelsea Arts Club and the Arts Club and in 1915 entered the Royal Society. In 1920, the gifted cartoonist died while playing a game of golf. His brother-in-law, Frank Reynolds, replaced him as Punch's art editor.
'No Thoroughfare', or 'Bravo, Belgium!', Punch, 12 August 1914.