Early Searle

I'm slowly piecing together Ronald's early, post-war career after he was liberated from captivity by the Japanese and returned to England. Even in the prison camp he maintained a tiny notebook with miniscule thumbnail ideas for cartoons in the belief that survival would mean resuming his career as a cartoonist which had started  to take off just as he enlisted.

This is one of the earliest examples I've found of his cartoons published in Punch magazine. He was twenty seven years old at this point and eager to make an impression in the London magazine cartooning field.

Punch March 5 1947 Vol CCXII 5539

That same month the venerable compendium of contemporary satire published another cartoon

Punch March 26 1947 Vol CCXII 5542

In this newspaper clipping from 1948 we see Searle's early work already making an impression on the Continent.

The following I unearthed in the vaults of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

December 1947


For more early Searle also see Lilliput pt.1  and London Opinion and The Strand