Ralph Whitworth

Ralph Whitworth (29 May 1924-19 April 1998) was a cartoonist for the Sheffield Telegraph.

Life

Born and raised in Sheffield, Whitworth's family moved often but are known to have lived on Scotland Street and in Palm Lane, Walkley.

When Whitworth turned 18 in 1942 he was conscripted into the army before volunteering for the elite Parachute Regiment. After training, Whitworth took part in the D-Day Landings on 6 June 1944 and the Rhine drops the following year.

Following the war, Whitworth worked as a freelance cartoonist while also working on building sites for much needed money.

He married Lois Stone in 1953. The following year they had their first son, Bill.

In the late 1950s he became the Sheffield Telegraph's news cartoonist.

Career

The "Whitworth" cartoons quickly became a mainstay of Sheffield newspapers and Whitworth's fame quickly spread. Despite frequent requests to appear on television and in public, Whitworth remained a private man who maintained a distance from his increasingly famous cartoons.

Although he won an award for his work on the Profumo affair and even got a vote in the newspaper's Man of the Century poll (he swore he did not vote for himself), lifetime membership of the Playboy Club (never taken up) and gained a reputation as a cartoonists' cartoonist, the man himself remained private.

In January 1970, Ralph and Lois had a second son, the cartoonist and writer James Whitworth.

Throughout the 1970s Whitworth published a number of books, including the best selling Sheffieldish in which he illustrated local dialect sayings. It quickly ran into a second edition and remained a best seller for a number of years.

Whitworth continued to work for the Sheffield Telegraph until its closure in 1986. He joined the weekly Telegraph in 1989 where he remained until his death from cancer in 1998.

Whitworth died on 19 April 1998.

"Whitworth On..." a collection of cartoons was published in 2007 to much acclaim and much press coverage.

The Sheffield Telegraph published a 20th anniversary supplement in October 2009 in which current cartoonists Pete McKee and Gary Graham-Jenkinson paid tribute to Whitworth.

References