Through Poy’s eyes we look upon whole career, all the vagaries and uncertainness of politics, until at last he becomes Prime Minister…. Poy never lampooned physical defects: He never made a single enemy, but, on the contrary, was loved by all who knew him. This did not mean that he lost anything of the robustness of satire… but simply that he could bring home his point, administer his rebuke, without ever resorting to personalities. Fieldfare claims Poy first brought Churchill’s undersized hats into prominence and satire: “Winston, pointing to the tiny hat (marked “Office”) perched precariously on his head, telling Labour, ‘You couldn’t wear a hat like this. It is only afterwards that you realise the brilliance of the drawing, and are staggered by the genius that created it.” 3įieldfare says Poy led cartoonists away from “cruel lampoons” to “sane commentary”… “O wad some poer the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!” 7 January 1920. Looking at any of his pictures you laugh because of their very rightness. He was not unlike a modern Aesop who…drew the simple truth with devastating clearness. Caricature was the object of all Poy’s work, but he never dipped his pen in vitriol…. ![]() Poy had no swords to rattle, no power of invective, no command of oratory his weapon was a simple one of ridicule, and he could wield it with unerring skill…. But “Thank God, every vestige of Victorianism was washed away in the ice-cool shining waters of Edwardian England.” Poy interpreted Churchill’s political life, his triumphs and foibles, from the catastrophe of one world war almost to the start of another. He was, of course, a Victorian (born the same year as Poy). Joining the Cabinet at age 34, Churchill commanded attention. “But there was a strange temper in the air burned beneath the surface of nearly every land with fierce, if shrouded, fires….” 2 “The old world in its sunset was fair to see,” Churchill wrote. There is much of Churchill in those words, for the Edwardian era had scarcely ended when the First World War changed everything. Nevertheless, he sees “something of its magic,” and “the never equaled figures which it magically produced in every sphere of life, especially in politics.” “Therefore I shall have a happy one.” Fieldfare acknowledges the appalling poverty, crime, squalor and disease that also accompanied those years. “I know I can only have a short reign,” he supposedly said. No monarchy since the Norman Conquest, he writes, compared with it. WSC was immediately offered the safe Liberal seat of Dundee he was elected, enabling him to join the Cabinet.įieldfare begins with the reign of King Edward VII (1901-10). Poy backed “Jix,” and his cartoons contributed to young Winston’s defeat. Appointed to the Board of Trade, Churchill was required to stand for reelection, and lost to the Conservative, William Joynson-Hicks. 1 “Converging Forces: The Psychological Moment,” April 1908. Had Poy lived, it is certain that he would have drawn a memorable cartoon to mark Sir Winston’s 80th birthday. In a sense, Poy is Churchill’s earliest and most constant biographer, and it is through his clear, cool, twinkling eyes that we watch here the long and active life of his subject. One of them is Winston Churchill, and the other Poy. “In this little book two great men are brought together,” writes “Fieldfare”: (Henry was also an Evening News hand, famous for his column on country walks, published under the pseudonym “Fieldfare.”) His booklet is an eloquent charmer, featuring 50 of his uncle’s best cartoons. To mark Churchill’s 80th birthday in 1954, Percy Fearon’s nephew Henry published Poy’s Churchill in tribute to them both. His mind was “full of fine ideas,” and he “yearned to pay his part in the war effort.” For fun in 1941, he produced “WIN-ston” (above), which was not published until after his death. When war came, he regretted that he was no longer working. Poy created over 10,000 cartoons in 34 years. He also worked for the Daily Mail, which he joined permanently in 1935, retiring three years later. In Britain he drew for several newspapers before joining London’s Evening News in 1913. His pseudonym derived from the American pronunciation of his first name (“Poycee”), which he abbreviated “Poy.” He studied at New York’s Art Students League and Chase School of Art, then moved to England in 1897. Two years later he moved to Staten Island, New York. Political caricature was a fine art, especially in England.Īmong the most prominent cartoonists was “Poy” (Percy Hutton Fearon, 1874-1948). Many are from the great blossoming of British cartoons in the first half of the 20th century. Benson runs the Political Cartoon Gallery, which exhibits and trades in original drawings. An enquiry from cartoon historian Tim Benson sent us to the library for Poy’s Churchill, by “Fieldfare” (1954).
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