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The former Nottingham School of Art (aka the Waverley Building) - still used by Nottingham Trent University's School of Art & Design
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Born on 27 February 1907, Cartoonist/illustrator Dudley D Watkins is best known for
drawing comic strips such as Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty and His
Pals, Oor Wullie and The Broons.
What I hadn’t realised until quite recently was that he
lived in Nottingham when he was young and studied at the Nottingham School of
Art before eventually gaining a position with publisher D.C. Thomson, who he
worked for until his death in 1969, aged 62.
While in Nottingham, Watkins spent some time working for
Boots, and in 1923, when he was 16 years old and working in the company’s
Window Display Department, his first published illustrations appeared in the
staff magazine, The Beacon.
As I have a collection of The Beacon dating back to that
time, I decided to have a look through my copies to determine exactly which of
Watkins’ early works were featured.
Several online sources incorrectly state that the very first
published work was Our Gymnasium Class. That piece, actually entitled Our
Gymnastic Class, appeared in Volume 3 No. 3, dated October 1923.
In fact, the earliest Watkins work featured in The Beacon,
called ‘As the Twig is Bent – So the Tree Inclines’, had appeared in Volume 2
No. 6 – the March 1923 edition. Watkins had also drawn the cover for the June
1923 edition (this illustration remained as the magazine cover until 1926) and
two of his contributions were featured in the August 1923 magazine (Volume 3
No. 2).
The December 1923 edition of The Beacon is, as far as I can
tell, the last one in which Dudley D Watkins’ work appeared.
Here are all of the Watkins Beacon illustrations that I have
been able to find, together with a small feature that the magazine published
about the man (or, rather, boy) himself. Click on the images to see larger
versions.
I'm very glad that our Dudley had the good sense to eschew the at times bizarre world of the company magazine and head for pastures that were destined to prove so rewarding and provide such a great deal of pleasure to so many of us.
To illustrate the soundness of his decision, we shall close with a quite remarkable photograph that appeared in the February 1924 number of The Beacon. The occasion is a fancy dress carnival held in the Manchester warehouse, 'at which a large number of the staff and friends were present.' In the photograph, we can see Mr F Murrell of the Drug Department, who is dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and 'carried off the Gents' prize - a Leather Wallet.'
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| From The Beacon, February 1924 (Vol. 3 No. 5) |
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| From The Beacon, February 1924 (Vol. 3 No. 5) |
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