Herbert Samuel Bert Thomas (1883-1966) born in Newport, Monmouthshire.
Ahoy There WWI screen printed cotton handkerchief Ahoy There in the centre with a sailor's head in a roundel, the four corners with A Naval Rating with a young officer being threatened by an admiral; Sea Dogs with a large officer and a bulldog, also with Bert Thomas signature,; Senior Service with a Chelsea pensioner and an aged sailor; Sailors Don't Care with a soldier talking to a woman, a sailor having a drink, in shades of red, yellow and soft blue green on a white ground, the writing in beige, border in royal blue, 17 in;43 cm sq.
A little washed out.
His father Job Thomas was a monumental sculptor who had helped decorate the Houses of Parliament. Bert at age 14 was apprenticed to a commercial metal engraver in Swansea, engraving names on brass doorplates and monograms on cutlery. He sketched in his spare time and sold his first cartoon to the magazine Pick-Me-Up, subsequently providing music-hall cartoons for local newspapers. At 17 Sir George Newnes, MP for Swansea saw and published some of his cartoons. In 1900 Albert Chevalier, a popular music-hall comedian, paid him £5 to design a poster, which was so successful that he moved to London. He got a job as Art Editor with an advertising agency Percy Bradshaw. He freelanced for Pick-Me-Up, The Bystander and The Graphic and other papers and in 1905 began a long association with Punch, which published more than 1,000 of his cartoons. In 1909 he began an even longer association with London Opinion, with political and social cartoons. He enlisted with the Artists' Rifles during the First WW. His most famous cartoon, which he drew in ten minutes during the early months of the war was of a grinning Cockney Tommy lighting a pipe Arf a Mo, Kaiser. The purpose was to raise funds to supply tobacco and cigarettes to front-line soldiers. It raised £250,000. The cartoon was re-used during the 2nd WW. Thomas contributed to a huge number of magazines , produced memorable posters during the 2ndWW including the series Is your journey really necessary which he drew in 1942 for the Railway Executive Committee. He published cartoon and other books, include Red and Black:A Book of Drawings 1928; Fun at the Seaside (1944) and A Trip on a Barge (1947). He also designed postcards and sketched portraits in the 1930's and 40's including one of Nancy Astor. See British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent. An oil c 1913 and two silhouettes 1937 are held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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