Dad’s doodles from Western Front that led to Dr Dolittle
THEY seem to be little more than scribbles in a letter home from the trenches, an attempt to cheer up two children who desperately missed their father in the First World War.
Yet the charming cartoon animals – shown here for the first time dancing ‘ring-a-ring-o’-roses’ and wearing top hats – inspired one soldier to create one of the most memorable characters in fiction.
The artist was Hugh Lofting, who was serving in the trenches of Flanders. Today he is known worldwide as the writer of the Dr Dolittle stories, featuring a physician who can talk to the animals. First made into a film starring Rex Harrison in 1967, and then with Eddie Murphy in 1998, it returns to the big screen next month with Robert Downey Jr.
But behind the heartwarming stories lay personal suffering. Not only was Dr Dolittle dreamt up amid the horrors of the Western Front, but Lofting would later be plagued by alcohol problems.
His son Christopher, 83, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘My father took pleasure in writing these letters from the Front because they gave him a certain amount of escapism from the horrors of war.’
They were addressed to Christopher’s older siblings, Colin and Elizabeth, who were five and four at the time. Apparently Lofting was inspired to name his central character Dolittle after Colin, who he often teased for being lazy. Lofting was encouraged by his first wife to turn his ideas into children’s fiction. The first book, The Story of Dr Dolittle, was published 100 years ago. Christopher believes his father spent much of his life in ‘conflict with himself’. Despite living most of his time in America, Lofting remained proudly British and never took American citizenship.
It was his peaceful nature, Christopher believes, that is key to understanding Dr Dolittle. ‘He’s the improbable hero and ultimately the animals and doctor survive by working together. His message was one of pacifism and equality.’ It was the plight of animals on the Western Front that gave Lofting the idea of making them the central characters in his letters home. Christopher remembers a father who could not abide cruelty to animals and would unleash his ‘Irish temper’ on anyone who mistreated them.