Wivenhoe Cartoons by 'Mac' of the Daily Mail

 

BCA 48042, 'It was absolute hell, dear - stuck for twelve hours, all having to huddle together for warmth', Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 14 January 1987

British Cartoon Archive

 

BCA 46467 'Blimey, they got off lightly! Our landlord's much harsher than that', Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 14 April 1987

British Cartoon Archive

 

BCA 42852, 'Well, Telecom's new chairman has made a fantastic start to improving it's public image!', Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 11 September 1987

British Cartoon Archive

Stan McMurtry (later known as ‘Mac’, the Daily Mail cartoonist) was born in Edinburgh on 4 May 1936, but later moved to Birmingham. From 1950 to 1953 he attended Birmingham College of Art, and from 1954 to 1956 he did his National Service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He then became a cartoon film animator at Henley-on-Thames, producing films for ITV – two of which won awards at Cannes Film Festivals. His first published cartoon appeared in Today on 7 January 1961, but he did not become a freelance cartoonist until 1965. At first he drew strips for Wham, Buster and other children’s comics while also contributing joke cartoons (signed “Stan McMurtry”) to publications including Punch and the London Evening News.

In 1968 he was offered the post of topical cartoonist for the Daily Sketch by the editor, Howard French. He created a new cartoon every day and signed these as ‘Mac’. The paper later became subsumed into the Daily Mail. In 1983 and 1984 he was voted CCGB Social and Political Cartoonist of the Year, and in 1983 and 1988 he was CCGB Cartoonist of the Year. In 2003 Mac was created MBE for “services to the newspaper industry.”

Details summarised from the online biography at the University of Kent British Cartoon Archive (BCA). To see the complete biography go to:
https://www.cartoons.ac.uk/cartoonist-biographies/m-n/StanMcMurtry_Mac.html

It appears that ‘Mac’ had a Wivenhoe connection and the local Wivenhoe Town Football Club’s Dragons Den website suggests that he may have lived around this area at one time. Certainly he produced three Wivenhoe-based cartoons in 1987 reproduced here by courtesy of the Daily Mail and the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent. These are:

BCA 48042, ‘It was absolute hell, dear – stuck for twelve hours, all having to huddle together for warmth’, Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 14 January 1987

BCA 46467 ‘Blimey, they got off lightly! Our landlord’s much harsher than that’,  Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 14 April 1987

BCA 42852, ‘Well, Telecom’s new chairman has made a fantastic start to improving it’s public image!’, Mac [Stanley McMurty], Daily Mail, 11 September 1987

If you recognise any of the characters in these cartoons please let us know!

The online catalogue records can be viewed at:

http://archives.cartoons.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=48042 

http://archives.cartoons.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=46467

http://archives.cartoons.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=42852