Over the course of Welsh History Month, which starts today, the Western Mail will be running a daily illustration by JM Staniforth, the paper’s pioneering cartoonist from the turn of the last century. Aled Blake takes a look at the work of a renowned satirist and talented artist
HE TRACKED some of the most important moments in Wales’ industrial history.
Yet the important work of JM Staniforth is probably unknown to most of us.
On May 1, 1869, in Cardiff, the first Western Mail was published. Six years earlier Joseph Morewood Staniforth was born in Gloucester.
Soon after, the Staniforth family moved to Wales and it was in Cardiff that Staniforth grew up and went to school.
As a teenager, he joined the Western Mail’s lithography department, where he was soon earmarked as a talent by the paper’s legendary editor, Henry Lascelles Carr.
By the early 1890s, Staniforth was the Western Mail’s regular cartoonist, satirising life in Wales, the rest of the UK, the Empire and the world through his cutting and perceptive cartoons.
“The cartoons were connected to the big issues of the day, not whimsical Gren-style cartoons,” said Welsh history Professor Chris Williams, of Swansea University.
“He was pretty highly respected by other cartoonists, some of his work appeared in Punch and it was said he had offers to work in London but preferred to live in Cardiff for most of his life.”
Prof Williams, who described him as “a bit of an institution”, said it is estimated that Staniforth drew around 15,000 cartoons in his lifetime – drawing for the Western Mail, its Welsh sister paper the Evening Express as well as the Sunday paper the News of the World, which was owned by the same proprietors in those days.
That was along with the drawings he did for a variety of magazines and journals.
In the Victorian and Edwardian period, the Western Mail was an Establishment newspaper – tying its colours to the mast of the Conservative coal owners.
And the paper’s editorial view was reflected by Staniforth in his cartoons, although he was independent of any proprietorial influence.
Prof Williams, who is giving a lecture on Staniforth at Big Pit on April 2, said: “He was fairly well aligned with the Western Mail’s political stance, which was Conservative and generally pro-coal owner.”
Despite that, when the Western Mail produced a 50th anniversary special in 1919, it was Staniforth who many people mentioned as the most popular feature of the paper – even the trades unionists who were at times his targets.
And Staniforth played a small, but important role as a sense of Welsh national identity began to form.
“Although he was born in England, he grew up in Wales and he saw Wales as important,” said Prof Williams.
“He saw the growth of Welsh national institutions, such as the National Library and the University of Wales, as significant.”
Prof Williams explained how Staniforth’s Dame Wales character become emblematic of his cartoons, portraying a maternal figure for the Welsh nation who provided a voice of reason. Often she discouraged people from making damaging decisions.
And she was depicted talking in a working class Valleys vernacular, in contrast to the Establishment figures Staniforth portrayed.
“He did contribute to a sense of national importance in Wales,” said Prof Williams.
“Cartoons are often overlooked as a source, but when a reader reads a newspaper, often the first thing they will latch on to is the cartoon.
“The Western Mail in those days saw itself as a paper with its roots in the British Empire and would report on world events.
“I would also argue that Staniforth believed what he drew. He was not being told what to draw, these were coming out of his head and he worked at his home in Llanishen.”
Prof Williams himself became interested in Staniforth’s work when he started using them to help illustrate lectures.
Before long he saw their importance in providing a view of Wales in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
He added: “It’s a little window on a culture at the time. If he is illustrating the Prime Minister as a music hall artist, he is making assumptions about what the audience can understand.
“There are a lot of raw materials for a social historian in these cartoons.”
Staniforth died in 1921, and it is only 90 years later that we are beginning to understand how important his work was – importance that was not underestimated by his peers.
On his death, Llewellyn Williams, the Recorder of Cardiff, wrote in the Western Mail: “The death of Staniforth is not merely a loss to Wales, but to the British art of caricature.
“Staniforth made fun of Wales and Welsh life and Welsh men. His satire was always good natured, but it was always true.
“Welsh journalism is greatly the poorer by his loss.”
Staniforth’s cartoons will be appearing each day on our comment and debate pages during Welsh History Month