Re: The Pages of Punch

Wonderful drawings .

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Beware! Woman behind the wheel!

I suppose this must be an early example of jokes about women drivers. Plenty more of them were to follow this one. Would anyone, male or female, really be unaware of the traffic duties of a police constable? Is she in uniform? I would guess that she is and is also replacing a male chauffeur.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: German shortages worse than in Britain

This cannot be described as an anti-German cartoon. The two people are quite gently satirised. The real point of the joke is that however bad things a home they are much worse for the enemy.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Another way of interpreting the citation

This type of award is given when a soldier has acted bravely where the enemy is not immediately present. For instance it might involve a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a mudslide. The cartoonist has chosen to use the words literally and has exploited the alternate meaning of the word gallantry.

A major war throws many people into situations outside their usual circumstances. Beside the very real dangers this gives rise to many opportunities of more interesting, not say, exciting experiences. Both the persons portrayed here are experiencing this excitement. I am old enough to have witnessed some of this excitement during World War Two – although I was too young to participate myself.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: The Padre’s Preference

Something tells me that ‘his reverence’ is Irish.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Paternal Precision

Why did Freddie need some money? Gambling debts, I wonder? Perhaps he was writing from Boulogne at the beginning of a period of leave and he was planning a riotous time in London? We shall never know, of course. What we do know is that the pater coughed up.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: The Pound in Your Pocket (© Harold Wilson)

Mathematically he is probably right but that does not make her feel any better about her loss.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Army biscuits have entered popular culture

Future generations of children were expected to know about the hard army biscuits. I suppose their hardness was due to the expectation that they would last longer.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Those profiteers again

These profiteers are really annoying the upper middle class readers of Punch. Wessex was then considered to be a wholly fictitious title since Wessex had ceased to be an actual title in 1066. Not any longer.

There is a serious footnote to this cartoon. 1918 is not only famous for the end of World War One. It also witnessed the Spanish Flu epidemic which caused the death of millions of people worldwide. (Wikipedia records estimates between 50 and 100 million). I can’t help wondering if this cartoon relates to an early instance of it.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: The Barbarians are at the Gates

Punch’s readers were never going to appreciate ‘modern art’. The son’s reply cannot possible be true. A bit over the top, one might say.