大象传媒

鈥淲ell, if you knows of a better 鈥榦le 鈥� go to it鈥︹��

These are the words of a cartoon drawn during WW1 which connected so truthfully with the resigned humour of soldiers in the trenches that it became a catchphrase used by world leaders as well as the general public.

The cartoon is a simple one, which is perhaps why its humour still rings true today. Two bareheaded soldiers, up to their chests in a shell hole, bleakly survey the grim moonscape of the battlefield around them. Nearby, an unexploded shell is seen; its nose threateningly buried in the mud.

One looks to the other and utters the now famous phlegmatic line.

The 鈥淏etter 鈥極le鈥� cartoon, as it鈥檚 become known, was drawn in Wiltshire in 1915, at Greenhills, now a nursing home in Sutton Veny.

The original drawing has survived, and on the reverse has the address "34th Div HQ, Greenhill, Sutton Veny" written in Bairnsfather's handwriting.

Its significance as a cartoon, and as a universally accepted comic reference, is well-known.

Mark Warby has researched Bairnsfather鈥檚 work. He says that Bairnsfather joined the army at the outbreak of war and was sent to France as a second-lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In the trenches of Flanders, as a form of amusement to cheer his comrades, he would draw cartoons of a sort on the walls of a farmhouse or sketch his thoughts on scraps of paper and pass them along the trench. From these beginnings came the characters of Old Bill, Bert and Alf and the Fragments From France.

Old Bill was Bairnsfather鈥檚 most well-known, iconic, character and would appear regularly in his work, under the banner title, 鈥淔ragments from France鈥�.

His first published cartoon appeared in The Bystander magazine in March 1915, after he鈥檇 speculatively submitted it thinking it 鈥榳as in their line鈥�.

Having been wounded serving with the Warwicks; Bairnsfather was attached to the 34th Division from September 1915 until January 1916. He was based at Sutton Veny near Warminster, as a machine gun instructor.

By this time Bairnsfather's name was well-known. During the few months he was stationed at Sutton Veny he would have completed many original 'Fragments from France' for publication. Among these was his most famous, 鈥渂etter 鈥榦le鈥� cartoon, published in The Bystander on 24 November 1915. The cartoon was incredibly popular when published, and since then Bairnsfather's caption has been 'borrowed' by other cartoonists and political figures.

Bill Tidy is a celebrated modern day cartoonist. He says that Bairnsfather had a rare talent in humorously portraying universal suffering: 鈥淭he acceptance of awfulness, I think, is what comes to soldiers after a while. None of Bairnsfather鈥檚 work is condescending. This is the way people spoke and this is the way they acted. He [Bairnsfather] knows when to drop an 鈥榟鈥� and it works; it stands the test of time.鈥�

The cartoonist wrote about his time at Sutton Veny in his second autobiographical work, "From Mud to Mufti" - published in 1919, which recounts his career in the war from 1915 through to the Armistice. Extracts from two illustrated letters written by him at Sutton Veny were also published in another book about him, in 1916.

Location: Sutton Veny, Wiltshire
Image: Bruce Bairnfather鈥檚 cartoon courtesy of Mark Warby of www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk

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