By Tonie and Valmai Holt. Barnsley, S. Yorks., UK: Leo Cooper, 2001. 288 pp. $34.95 hardcover.

Cartoon character “Old Bill,” the creation of the imagination and pen of British Army Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, came to personify the frontline British soldier of World War I. Irreverent and amusing, yet the model of fortitude, integrity, and optimism, “Old Bill” entered the homes and hearts of civilians on the home front while at the same time raising the spirits and morale of his “comrades” in the trenches on the Western Front.
This interesting book — named In Search of the Better ’Ole after one of Bairnsfather’s first cartoons, considered by the authors to be “the most famous cartoon ever” — is a biography of the talented Bairnsfather. His early life, months in the trenches as an infantry officer (which included the 1914 “Christmas truce”), and the genesis and evolution of his cartoons, are chronicled in rich detail, frequently using Bairnsfather’s own correspondence and the recollections of those who knew him. This volume is also profusely illustrated with Bairnsfather’s artwork and with numerous photographs.
In the monotony of the trenches, Bairnsfather, who had been trained before the war as an artist, began drawing his cartoons in January 1915. Initially drawing on scraps of paper and ration boxes, Bairnsfather’s cartoons quickly became popular with the soldiers, who began to pin them up in the trenches — next to the pictures of scantily-clad ladies. Bairnsfather, on a whim, submitted a cartoon to the magazine The Bystander, and was surprised when it was published to popular acclaim. In 1916, a collection of his drawings, entitled Fragments from France, was reprinted nine times, making Bairnsfather a national celebrity to all except the “Establishment”.
Bairnsfather and “Old Bill” both survived the Great War, setting a precedent for Bill Mauldin and his footslogging “Willie and Joe” cartoon characters of the Second World War. Bairnsfather later wrote books and became involved in plays, motion pictures, and many other types of “Old Bill” memorabilia, which is catalogued in the book’s final thirty-four pages. During World War II, Bairnsfather drew propaganda posters before becoming, perhaps ironically, official cartoonist to the American Forces in Europe.
After Bairnsfather’s 1959 death, a British First World War veteran declared, “Bairnsfather’s brilliance, in that Old Bill series anyway, helped to win the war.” This compelling book also deserves praise in highlighting the contributions and perpetuating the legacy of Bairnsfather and his creation “Old Bill”.