Les Lumsdon

Leslie Lumsdon (16 October 1912 – 1977) was a popular Australian cartoonist for the Newcastle Morning Herald.

Personal life

He was born on 16 October 1912 in Abermain, New South Wales.[1] He married his wife Vera on 1 July 1938.[1]

Career

His first job was working at his parents' corner store.[2] Then he got a job at the advertising department at the Hustler's store in Maitland.[2] During World War II he worked in the Newcastle camouflage unit.[3] He spent two years in New Guinea where he made extra money drawing postcards which were popular with American troops.[2]

In 1942 his first cartoon strips on Basil appeared in the South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus,[4] the Muswellbrook Chronicle[5] and the Gippsland Times.[6] From July 1944 a mouthless boy named Nipper began to appear in cartoons published by the Burnie Advocate.[7]

In 1946 he was hired by the Newcastle Herald as a cartoonist.[3] He was a popular artist who once emptied seventeen pens signing autographs at a Newcastle Show.[2]

He retired from the Newcastle Morning Herald in 1977 and died later that year.[2]

Casper the Cat

His most famous drawing was Casper the black cat.[2] There was public outcry when he drew Casper being drowned in the Newcastle Harbour after failing to pick a Melbourne cup winner.[2] He published five volumes of cartoons that included Casper.[3]

Exhibitions
  • Artists and cartoonists in black and white in 1999 in the S. H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney, NSW [8]
  • 50 years of the newspaper cartoon in Australia  in 1973 at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA [8]
  • Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning, 11 September 1964 - 19 September 1964, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales [8]
  • Lake Macquarie City Library, Speers Point, New South Wales[8]
  • National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney, NSW[8]

References
  1. "RecordSearch: Leslie Lumsdon". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  2. "Les Lumsdon, a life in cartoons". Photo Time Tunnel. 2019-03-02. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  3. "Lumsdon, Les (1912 - 1977) - Cartoon Gallery". www.politicalcartoon.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  4. "BASIL". South Coast Times And Wollongong Argus. XXXXIII (43). New South Wales, Australia. 30 October 1942. p. 10. Retrieved 22 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "BASIL". The Muswellbrook Chronicle. 22 (88). New South Wales, Australia. 10 November 1942. p. 3. Retrieved 22 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "(cartoon)". Gippsland Times (11, 415). Victoria, Australia. 21 December 1942. p. 4. Retrieved 22 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "NIPPER". The Advocate (Australia). Tasmania, Australia. 3 July 1944. p. 4 (DAILY). Retrieved 22 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "Les Lumsdon :Biography". Design & Art Australia Online.
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