Clerk’s funny wartime cartoons provide biting social comment
Exhibition of drawings that have laid in drawers for years
CARTOONS offering a humorous and often satirical take on the First World War, drawn at the time by a Camberley man, are being displayed in the town.
George Cox worked as a clerk at RMA Sandhurst but his passion was drawing cartoons depicting everyday life.
With the First World War centenary being marked all this year, and particularly around the time of its outbreak on July 28 and Britain’s entry on August 4, Surrey Heath Museum is exhibiting a selection of Mr Cox’s wartime cartoons.
Mr Cox, who was 36 when the Great War began, continued drawing right up until his death in 1946, aged 68, and many of his later cartoons are comments on the Second World War. Some of his work was published in the Camberley News and the RMA’s own newsletter.
Although many of the 62 cartoons on display feature prominent war figures, including Adolf Hitler during the Second World War, others focus on the lives of those left at home, in particular the exploits of women.
One of the cartoons on display in the museum depicts a woman, just before the First World War, being questioned about rumours that she will go out with any Tom, Dick or Harry, to which she replies it is nonsense as she does not know anyone called Tom.
Less than half a century later and Mr Cox’s cartoons show women in a different light as their social status had been elevated to the point where their vital role in the war effort was more notable.
Senior museum officer Gill Barnes-Rider said her favourite cartoon was one that showed Father Christmas in 1916 carrying sacks full of munitions, soldiers, horses, boats and military vehicles.
Among these are some unusual-looking tanks, a new piece of machinery at that time, which Mr Cox had drawn based on what he had read about the vehicles.
Mrs Barnes-Riding said she did not expect many in the area would have heard of Mr Cox, and hoped the exhibition would change that.
“We wanted to have an exhibition about what was going on at home during both wars,” she said. “They are witty and humorous but also biting social comment. They are just amazing.”
Later cartoons feature characters such as a woman whose underwear has fallen down due to the lack of food thanks to rationing.
The cartoons have been loaned to the museum by Mr Cox’s grandson, Geoff Cox, the now-retired manager of Camberley Library who has more than 300 in total.
He said: “It is great that after all these years they’ve been languishing in drawers, they’re now on display.”
The display was arranged after talks between Mr Cox and the museum staff, and runs until August 30.
The museum is also hosting a lecture by Camberley historian Murray Rowlands on August 19, from 6pm to 7.30pm, on local perspectives of the Great War. Tickets are £2.50 and should be booked in advance by calling the museum on 01276 707284.
A competition challenging children to write a poem about the First World War is also running at the museum, jointly organised with Collectively Camberley.
Entries can be made in categories for those aged eight to 12, 13 to 15 and 16 to 18, with prizes including vouchers for clothes, games and toys. Entries are welcomed until August 30 and will be displayed in The Mall, Camberley from October 25 until November 9.
For more information, visit www.surreyheath.gov.uk.
l To mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, the News & Mail will be publishing a souvenir supplement in next week’s paper.