I am interested in learning something about a Sheffield newspaper cartoonist from the 1930s and into the early 1940s. He signed himself as L.R. Briault, and worked for both the Sheffield Telegraph and the Green Un. Examples of his work was recently featured in the 100th anniversary edition/souvenir published by the Green Un, and his work can be found in some of the pre-war Sheffield Telegraph football guides. He did caricatures representing the local football clubs --United, Wednesday, Barnsley, Rotherham, Chesterfield etc.
I imagine that he lived in Shefield for much of his career, and he may have had a family, but I cannot find the name in a telephone directory.
If I knew when he either retired or died, it may well be that there was a write-up in the Telegraph.

Hi Redfyre -Would he have had any connection to the 'Heap' cartoons and caricatures you used to see in the Sheffield Telegraph & Star.

No, Harry Heap was always on The Star, and though he started at the same office as Briault (The Star and Telegraph were quite separate even though they shared the same premises) in the 1930s, he had a very different style and went on to become a sort of legend as a cartoonist. Plenty is known about Harry Heap, and a few people still remember that John Harris, the famous novelist, was also a cartoonist (though he was a Telegraph man) in the same era; but nobody seems to know anything about Briautt.
My own feeling is that he may have been called up during the war, and did not return to the paper.

Are you sure that's the right surname? If you do a search on FreeBMD for Briautt you get nothing, but if you search for Briault you get some possible births of the right sort of vintage, for example Louis Ranson Briault born in 1885 and Ronald L R Briault born in 1913.

Looks like the first of those two is your man. See here (http://lambiek.net/artists/b/briault_louis.htm).

Thanks Metalman, you have solved a problem that has been puzzling me for some years, and even the late Peter Harvey wasn't able to get to the bottom of it. I have misread the signature on the caricatures I have seen, and seen the last two letters in his surname as tt when it was lt. Now I know he was Louis Briault, I shall probably be able to find even more about him, for the Telegraph probably carried an obit in Dec 1944.
Thanks again, Metalman.

Glad to be of service. :)

Metalman, if you can advise me how you were able to post your illustration, I will send a copy of a card I have made which features an Owls and a Blade done by LRB, plus the Heap character Alf.

I didn't post an illustration, it was just a link to a website which appears to be some sort of Dutch comics encyclopaedia. You can't post pics on here unless you upload them to Photobucket or something similar and then put them in as a link.

Back to cartoonists and the First World War: in a History of the Sheffield City Battalion published a couple of years ago, a group photograph includes a Corporal O Bradshaw, who is understood to have been a cartoonist with connections to the Sheffield Telegraph. Has anyone out there heard of him?

No, but...

Owen BRADSHAW bn 1890, whose service record is on Ancestry (indexed as 'Owens', service number 12/877) is described as a journalist on his attestation form.

His medal card says he was a corporal, but also mentions 'A/Sgt' which I'm guessing means Acting Sergeant. It looks as though he started with the 12th Battalion but moved to the 13th. He ended the war as Brigade Clerk attached to the HQ of the 94th Yeoman Infantry Brigade. He was 'mildly' gassed in 1918.

Hugh

From Sheffield Archives holdings (from a list at the National Archives):

Owen Bradshaw, journalist and artist: papers rel to Home Guard service, incl writings on camouflage, with scrap books and other ephemera 1928-88 (2004/30)

Hugh

I have been trying to think of the name of the guy who was doing the Gloops drawings at The Star at the time the series came to an end. Someone did once tell me, but I can't find the note I made!

Hello Hugh...many thanks for your prompt and detailed reply to my query about Owen Bradshaw.

Some cartoons by people like Heap and Briault are featured on http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/ and I am hoping to post a picture of Gloops --though I am still searching for the name of the guy who was the last of the Gloops illustrators on The Star. When I find it, I'll be back!

Hi Dublugee-- Re Owen Bradshaw, I have been looking at The Star for 1946 today and, hey presto, I found an obit for Owen Bradshaw. He died suddenly at the age of 56 on Friday November 8th 1946. Apparently he was the author of Gloops (The Star) cartoons from 1936 to just days before his death in the Royal Infirmary. He started out with the Weekly Telegraph as a boy in 1904 and later became an artist and sub-editor on that paper, subsequently working as an artist with The Star. During WW1 he was with the City Battalion (sgt), and served with the Home Guard in WW2. He left a widow and a daughter, and at the time of his death his family home was at 44 Watt Lane, Sheffield.

There is also a reference to Owen Bradshaw on http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/ with illustrations, in case anyone is especially interested in adding to our knowledge of Sheffield cartoonists.

Thanks Redfyre for filling in on cartoonist Owen Bradshaw. Re your Gloops research: The Star's jolly cartoon cat was being drawn around 1950 by Walter Chambers. All Gloops Club members will have fond memories of 'Aunt Edith' (Edith Outram) while members of the Sheffield Telegraph Childrens' Ring will remember 'Uncle Timothy' (city councillor Ernest Tindall).

I remember when you could walk into The Star shop on High Street and talk to Aunt Edith.She was a very kind lady, and as kids we thought it great that it was so easy to meet her. In later years, I met Ernest Tindall, and he, too, was the sort of man you would love to have as your grandfather!

I have come across a cutting re the sequence of artists who drew Gloops in The Star. The first was Ken Sydney, then came Owen Bradshaw (known as Cousin Toby), and the last one was Walter Chambers, who took over at a moment's notice when Bradshaw died.
I would be interested in knowing more about Ken Sydney, and, indeed, Walter Chambers. Anyone got any info?
The Gloops cartoon celebrated its 25th anniversary in mid 1953, and The Star produced a souvenir section.

Hello Redfyre: I have no knowledge of cartoonist Ken Sydney.

Hi dublugee! I thought a gentleman of your great vintage and knowledge would be sure to know something about Ken Sydney, the man who created Gloops and drew him for The Star from 1928 to 1936. Oh dear, what do I do now! I assume that Ken either retired or died in 1936, for that is when Bradshaw was brought into action.
I am not too surprised that Ken Sydney hasn't prompted an immediate reaction, but I did think there would be someone out there who knew a bit about Walter Chambers.
I can't remember when the Gloops cartoon stopped appearing in The Star (it may have been in the late 1950s), and I don't know whether it stopped as part of a new editorial policy, or whether it was because Chambers retired.
We might have a clue if we know something about Aunt Edith (Edith Outram?) and when she finished at Kemsley House, for I can't imagine the paper letting Gloops continue after Aunt Edith's departure.

HELLO REDFYRE: I'll try to get on the trail of Aunt Edith. Thanks for the vintage label!