CARTOON RECONNAISSANCE

QI am trying to track down a print/ reprint of a First World War cartoon, which shows two young officers standing, I believe, in a trench with one pointing across No Man’s Land saying something along the lines of: “We don’t own the land but we do have the sporting/shooting rights.” Would you be able to help?

RA, by email

AI have contacted the Bruce

Bairnsfather

Society as this print sounded as if it could have been one of his. Sadly, they have searched through all their volumes of Bruce Bairnsfather’s First World War cartoons and can’t find one that matches this description. (Bairnsfather’s weekly Fragments from France cartoons were published in The Bystander magazine.) While there were other cartoonists at the time he was the most prolific. There is a similar Bairnsfather cartoon, however. It depicts two officers, one pointing across into the distance, and the setting is reminiscent of a battle although it is evidently the Colonel’s estate in Scotland rather than the battlefield. This cartoon was titled Grouse – “Strafing” – Up to Date and was published in The Bystander on 27 August 1918. If anyone is familiar with the cartoon described by our reader, please contact me at the address above.