[lit-ideas] Re: The Better 'Ole
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:36:58 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 3/26/2013 2:51:24 P.M. UTC-02, profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx
refers to
>The cartoon--an early copy is on my reading room wall--is by Bairns
Bairnsfather:
>http://tinyurl.com/c5o5v82
adding
>
thinking Donal needs a treat from the store, possibly Moostruck Chocolates,
----
The reference being to:
"Well if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it!" (1915)
by Bruce Bairnsfather, one of the most famous cartoons
of the Great War
For the record, more below.
Note the implicature of 'knows' in:
If you knows of a better 'ole, go for it!
---- In symbols:
⊢p ⊃ !q
rather than
!( ⊢p ⊃ q)
-- which would be senseless. Cfr. the disimplicature:
'if you THINKS you knows of a better 'ole, go for it'.
Cfr.
>thinking Donal needs a treat.
vs
KNOWING it.
Cheers,
Speranza
---
* With reference to "What was your father reading during the war", in
connection to Omar's question, "The soldiers weren't reading Hegel, were
they?",
and C. Bruce's attempt at an answer, "No, they were reading Kant", with a
reference to an inscription, "Sie findet . . . steigende Verwendung in
Arbeitsgemeinschaften und . . . zu Einzelstudium, *insbesondere an der
Front.*" ['It has found growing use in study groups and for individual
study, *especially on the front lines*'].
Note that the implicature seems to be that INDIVIDUAL study is preferred on
the front lines?
----
Captain (Charles) Bruce Bairnsfather (9 July 1887 – 29 September 1959) was
a prominent British humorist and cartoonist.
His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill. Bill and his pals Bert and
Alf featured in Bairnsfather's weekly "Fragments from France" cartoons
published weekly in "The Bystander" magazine during the First World War.
Born to a military family in Murree, British India (now Pakistan), he spent
his early life in India, but was brought to England in 1895 to be educated
at the United Services College, Westward Ho!, then at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Initially intending a military career, he failed entrance exams to
Sandhurst and Woolwich Academies but joined the Cheshire Regiment.
He resigned in 1907 to become an artist, studying at the John Hassall
School of Art. Unsuccessful at first, he worked as an electrical engineer.
Working this capacity for the Old Memorial Theatre, Stratford, brought him into
acquaintance with Marie Corelli, who introduced him to Thomas Lipton, a
connection that led to commissions to draw advertising sketches for Lipton
tea, Player's cigarettes, Keen's Mustard, and Beecham's Pills.
In 1914 he joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and served with a machine
gun unit in France until 1915, when he was hospitalised with shell shock
and hearing damage sustained during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Posted to the 34th Division headquarters on Salisbury Plain, he developed
his humorous series for the Bystander about life in the trenches, featuring
"Old Bill", a curmudgeonly soldier with trademark walrus moustache and
balaclava. The best remembered of these shows Bill with another trooper in a
muddy shell hole with shells whizzing all around. The other trooper is
grumbling and Bill advises:
“Well, If you knows of a better 'ole, go to it.”
.
Many of his cartoons from this period were collected in Fragments From
France (1914) and the autobiographical Bullets & Billets (1916).
Despite the immense popularity with the troops and massive sales increase
for the Bystander, initially there were objections to the "vulgar
caricature".
Nevertheless, their success in raising morale led to Bairnsfather's
promotion and receipt of a War Office appointment to draw similar cartoons for
other Allies forces.
In 1921 Bairnsfather married Cecilia Agnes Scott.
"Old Bill" and Bairnsfather himself continued in popularity between the
World Wars.
Many police officers of the time had similar facial hair, and that may have
led to British police being referred to as "The Bill".
Bairnsfather was the subject of one of the first British sound film in
1927, wrote and directed the 1928 Canadian film Carry On Sergeant[citation
needed], and took part in the early Alexandra Palace television transmissions
in 1936. Old Bill appeared in numerous books, plays, musicals and films. In
1939 he published an autobiography, "Wide Canvas".[2]
In World War II, he continued Old Bill work, but was not asked to help
with the British war effort. Instead, he became official cartoonist to the
American forces in Europe, contributing to Stars and Stripes and Yank, whilst
residing at Cresswell House in Clun, Shropshire. He also drew cartoons at
American bases and nose art on aircraft. His works are considered to have
influenced artists such as Bill Mauldin.
In later life, he had found himself typecast as the creator of Old Bill,
and his Times obituary concluded of his career that he was "fortunate in
possessing a talent ... which suited almost to the point of genius one
particular moment and one particular set of circumstances; and he was
unfortunate
in that he was never able to adapt, at all happily, his talent to new times
and new circumstances".[3] He died in 1959 of complications of bladder
cancer, in Worcester.
"The Growth of Democracy" by Bruce Bairnsfather (1917). "Colonel Sir
Valtravers Plantagenet gladly accepts a light, during a slight lull in a
barrage, from a private in the Benin Rifles".
A commemorative blue plaque appears outside one of his old studios, 1
Stirling Street, Kensington.
The blue plaque was initiated by Tonie and Valmai Holt who later wrote
Bairnsfather's biography (In Search of the Better Ole - the Life, the Works and
the Collectables of Bruce Bairnsfather) and also sponsored a memorial
plaque to Bairnsfather on the cottage at St Yvon in Belgium at the edge of
Plugstreet Wood where Bairnsfather drew his first 'trench' cartoons.
A plaque commemorating Bruce Bairnsfather was unveiled at his former home,
Victoria Spa Lodge, Bishopton, Stratford upon Avon on 10 September 2005 by
cartoonist Bill Tidy.
The plaque was instigated by Mark Warby, Editor of The Old Bill Newsletter,
the official journal for Bairnsfather enthusiasts and collectors.
On 24 September 2011 a plaque commemorating Bruce Bairnsfather was
unveiled on the wall of Colwall Royal British Legion Club in Crescent Road,
Colwall, near Malvern in Worcestershire. The plaque was instigated by the
Colwall
Village Society and was unveiled by Mark Warby. Bairnsfather lived in
Colwall from 1951 to 1954 and was well-known at the British Legion Club in the
village.
Bill & Alphie's, the Royal Military College of Canada's on-campus cadet
pub in Kingston, Ontario is named after Bruce Bairnsfather's Great War
cartoon characters. Yeo Hall at the College of Canada features sculptures of
Bill
and Alphie. There is a large mural drawn on the wall of the main staircase
in the Royal British Legion Victory House Club in Ludlow Shropshire.
References
Mark Bryant, "Bairnsfather, (Charles) Bruce (1887–1959)", Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online
edn,
May 2006 accessed 2 July 2007
^ Bullets & Billets at Project Gutenberg
^ Bairnsfather, Bruce (1939). Wide Canvas: An Autobiography. London: John
Long. p. 252.
^ Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather: Creator Of "Old Bill", The Times, 30 Sep 1959
^ "Bruce Bairnsfather plaque in London". OpenPlaques.
_http://openplaques.org/plaques/584_ (http://openplaques.org/plaques/584) .
Retrieved 9
September 2011.
^ "Bishopton 2005 Reunion". brucebairnsfather.org.
_http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk/index_files/page0109.htm_
(http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk/index_files/page0109.htm) . Retrieved 9
September 2011.
Tonie and Valmai Holt, In Search of the Better 'Ole, A Biography of
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, including a listing of his Works and Collectables,
Pen and Sword Books, 2001, ISBN 0 85052 764-3
Filmography
The Better 'Ole Welsh-Pearson Films (1918)
Old Bill Through the Ages Ideal Films (1924) - personal appearance
The Better 'Ole Warner Bros (1926)
Old Bill's Christmas RKO (1930)
Old Bill & Son Legeran Films (1941)
External links
_http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk_ (http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk)
- Official Website
Bruce Bairnsfather and Old Bill Dugout - The first tribute website
Fragments from France - scans from World War I work
Works by Bruce Bairnsfather at Project Gutenberg
_www.brucebairnsfather.com_ (http://www.brucebairnsfather.com) official
website
_http://guide-books.co.uk/bairnsfather.html_
(http://guide-books.co.uk/bairnsfather.html) - Bairnsfather biography
_http://www.bb4h4h.co.uk/_ (http://www.bb4h4h.co.uk/) - Bairnsfather 50th
Anniversary Commemorations
British Pathe film of Bruce Bairnsfather, 1923
British Pathe film showing Bairnsfather sketching Prime Minister David
Lloyd George, 1910
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bruce Bairnsfather
Authority controlVIAF: 45440540
----
"Old Bill", from Bullets & Billets: "First Discovered in the Alluvial
Deposits of Southern Flanders. Feeds Almost Exclusively on Jam and Water
Biscuits. Hobby: Filling Sandbags, on Dark and Rainy Nights".
---
Persondata
NameBairnsfather, Bruce
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth1887
Place of birth
Date of death1959
Place of death
Categories:
British cartoonists
Cheshire Regiment officers
Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers
British Army personnel of World War I
1887 births
1959 deaths
People educated at United Services College
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