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Whitworth - Sheffield Telegraph & Star Cartoonist


Guest steelcityman

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Guest steelcityman

I've been looking back through old editions of both papers and am amazed at the quality of the cartoons. I wondered if anyone had any more info on Whitworth?

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Guest Old Canny Street Kid

I've been looking back through old editions of both papers and am amazed at the quality of the cartoons. I wondered if anyone had any more info on Whitworth?

Ralph Whitworth died quite a few years ago now. He was a great guy. Initially he worked for the Morning Telegraph, but then worked for both the Telegraph and The Star at the same time (The Star recognised just how good he was and how popular he was with readers). He was with the Telegraph right up to it closing in 1986, and then for some time continued working for just The Star. A few years ago his son produced a collection of some of Whitworth's cartoons --some are still remembered. I do not have access to Ralph's obit at present, but will try to find some more info. In the meantime, if I can put my hand on a couple of his cartoons I will post them here.

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Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Ralph Whitworth died quite a few years ago now. He was a great guy. Initially he worked for the Morning Telegraph, but then worked for both the Telegraph and The Star at the same time (The Star recognised just how good he was and how popular he was with readers). He was with the Telegraph right up to it closing in 1986, and then for some time continued working for just The Star. A few years ago his son produced a collection of some of Whitworth's cartoons --some are still remembered. I do not have access to Ralph's obit at present, but will try to find some more info. In the meantime, if I can put my hand on a couple of his cartoons I will post them here.

I can now add a short biog of Ralph Whitworth.

Ralph Whitworth. A brilliant cartoonist who worked for the Morning Telegraph for more than 25 years until retiring when the paper closed in 1986. However, for at least half of that time, he had also been doing cartoons for The Star. When the weekly Sheffield Telegraph was launched in 1989 Ralph came out of retirement, and produced a regular cartoon until shortly before his death at the age of 73 in April 1998. Ralph started drawing cartoons when he was a soldier in the Parachute Regiment, with some of his earliest work appearing in Pegasus, the British Airborne Forces magazine. He later freelanced and, after a short spell as emergency stand-in for the regular artist responsible for the Gloops cartoon in The Star, he eventually discovered the Weekly Telegraph section of the Sheffield Telegraph, and his contributions soon led to the offer of a staff job. One of his most famous cartoons was inspired by the decision of Len Ashurst, manager of struggling Sheffield Wednesday, to take his players onto the moors to camp overnight in the middle of winter. Ralph (a staunch Owls fan) drew two sheep, with one saying to the other: "I've been roughing it on these moors for years and I'm STILL no good at football!". For some years, at the instigation of Owls chairman Bert McGhee, a framed copy of the cartoon adorned the walls of the refreshment room at Hillsborough.

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