22 Facts About Carl Giles

Ronald "Carl" Giles OBE, often referred to simply as Giles, was a cartoonist who worked for the British newspaper the Daily Express.

Carl Giles's cartoon style was a single topical highly detailed panel, usually with a great deal more going on than the single joke.

Carl Giles was born in Islington, London, the son of a tobacconist and a farmer's daughter.

Carl Giles was nicknamed "Karlo", later shortened to "Carl", by friends who decided he looked like Boris Karloff, a lifelong nickname.

Carl Giles was actually registered with that name when he died in 1995.

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Carl Giles then went to Ipswich to join Roland Davies, who was setting up a studio to produce animated versions of his popular newspaper strip "Come On Steve".

Six ten-minute films were produced, beginning with Steve Steps Out, but even though Carl Giles was the head animator, he received no screen credit.

In 1937, Carl Giles started work as a cartoonist for the left-wing Sunday newspaper Reynolds News, for which he drew a weekly topical cartoon and a comic strip, "Young Ernie".

Carl Giles's strip came to the attention of the editor of the Sunday Express and in 1943 he was interviewed for a job on the Evening Standard, but was eventually offered a job on the Daily Express and Sunday Express instead, at a higher salary of 20 guineas per week, and he quit Reynolds News.

Carl Giles was rejected for war service for being blind in one eye and deaf in one ear following a motorcycle accident, but made animated shorts for the Ministry of Information, while some of his cartoons were reprinted in poster form for the Railway Executive Committee and others.

Carl Giles interviewed the camp commandant, Josef Kramer, who turned out to be aware of and an admirer of Carl Giles's work.

Carl Giles finally quit working for The Daily Express in 1989; his cartoons had been allocated less and less space in the newspaper, and he said that the last straw was being stood up following a trip to London to lunch with the editor.

Carl Giles continued working for the Sunday Express until 1991.

Carl Giles contributed cartoons to Men Only and other publications, drew advertising cartoons for Guinness, Fisons and other companies, and designed Christmas cards for the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and Game Conservancy Research Fund.

Carl Giles married Sylvia 'Joan' Clarke, his first cousin, on 14 March 1942 in East Finchley.

Carl Giles was reported to have never got over the death of his wife, on Christmas Day 1994, and died himself just over eight months later at Ipswich Hospital on 27 August 1995 aged 78.

In June 2017, Dr Tim Benson published the first biography of Carl Giles to be based on the cartoonist's own correspondence in his book 'Carl Giles's War'.

Benson discovered that Carl Giles had been dishonest about his reasons for leaving Reynolds News due to the guilt he felt over joining Express Newspapers.

The book discusses how Carl Giles misled his biographer Peter Tory over many details of his career.

Carl Giles cited his influences as Bruce Bairnsfather and Graham Laidler, and he himself influenced the style of the newspaper cartoonists "JAK" and "Mac".

Carl Giles, who was by this time using a wheelchair, was present at the unveiling.

Carl Giles' grave is located in the churchyard of Tuddenham St Martin, Suffolk.