Editing David Low (cartoonist) (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:Ye Madde Designer.jpg|thumb|''Ye Madde Designer'', 1935]]
The son of chemist David Brown Low and Jane Caroline Flanagan, David Low was born in [[Dunedin]] on 7 April 1891, and attended primary school there. His family later moved to [[Christchurch]], where Low briefly attended [[Christchurch Boys' High School]]. However following the death of his eldest brother, Low was taken out of school, as his parents believed that he had been weakened by over studying. Low's first cartoon was published in 1902, when he was 11 years old, a three-picture strip in the British comic ''[[Big Budget]]''.<ref name="AustralianDB"/>

===Early career===
Low began his career as a professional cartoonist with the ''Canterbury Times'' in 1910. In 1911 he moved to Sydney, Australia to join ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]''. 
A large format collection of some 350 pieces for those papers was published in the album ''Caricatures by Low 1915''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article238770960 |title=A Book of Caricatures |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=Sydney |issue=11,403 |date=27 November 1915 |accessdate=31 December 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
During his employment at ''The Bulletin'', Low became well known for a 1916 cartoon satirising [[Billy Hughes]], then the [[Prime Minister of Australia]], entitled ''The Imperial Conference''. After that success, Low published many cartoons depicting Hughes' forceful and eccentric personality. Hughes was not impressed and apparently called Low a "bastard" to his face.<ref>{{cite web|title=Air raid, Sir! Take cover!|url=http://vrroom.naa.gov.au/records/?tab=about&ID=19470|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|access-date=22 September 2013}}</ref> A collection of Low's cartoons of Hughes entitled ''The Billy Book'', which he published in 1918, brought Low to the notice of Henry Cadbury, part-owner of ''[[The Star (1888)|The Star]]''. In 1919 Cadbury offered Low a job with the ''Star'', which Low promptly accepted.

===Move to England===
From 1919 to 1927 Low worked at the London ''Star'', which sympathised with his moderately left-wing views. In 1927, he accepted an invitation from [[Max Aitken]] to join the conservative ''[[Evening Standard]]'' on the strict understanding that there would be no editorial interference with his output. In 1928 he showed his support for newly enfranchised women with his character, Joan Bull. The character appeared for a few years but fell out of regular use as the public concerns about women getting the vote disappeared.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/75335 |title=Joan Bull |pages=ref:odnb/75335 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/75335 |access-date=2022-11-27 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> Low produced numerous cartoons about the [[Austrian Civil War]], the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|Italian invasion of Ethiopia]], the [[1936 Summer Olympics]], the [[Spanish Civil War]], and other events of the [[interwar period]]. He also worked with Horace Thorogood to produce illustrated whimsical articles on the London scene, under the byline "Low & Terry".

[[John Gunther]] called Low "the greatest caricaturist in the world".<ref name="gunther1940">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n311/mode/2up | title=Inside Europe | publisher=Harper & Brothers | author=Gunther, John | author-link=John Gunther | location=New York | year=1940 | page=289}}</ref> In 1937, [[Nazism|Nazi]] Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] told British [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]] [[Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Lord Halifax]] that British [[political cartoons]], particularly those of Low's, were damaging [[Anglo-German relations]]. In 1937 Low had produced an occasional strip about "Hit and Muss" (Hitler and Mussolini), but after Germany made official complaints he substituted a composite dictator, "Muzzler".<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34606?docPos=3 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref> After the war, Low is said to have found his name in ''[[The Black Book (list)|The Black Book]]'', the list of those the Nazis planned to arrest in the aftermath of an [[Operation Sea Lion|invasion of Great Britain]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2002/04_april/low_exhibition.shtml Exhibition celebrates the 20th Century's greatest cartoonist], BBC Worldwide Press Releases. Retrieved on 14 October 2008.</ref>

===Second World War===
[[File:Davidlowrendezvous.png|thumb|''Rendezvous'', 20 September 1939.]]
His works are featured in many British history textbooks. On 1 September, the Germans [[invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] from the west and, on 17 September, the Soviets [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invaded from the east]]. Low depicted these events in one of his most famous cartoons, ''Rendezvous'', first published in the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' on 20 September 1939.<ref>{{cite web |title=LSE2692 – Rendezvous |url=https://archive.cartoons.ac.uk/record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=LSE2692 |website=[[British Cartoon Archive]] |publisher=[[University of Kent]] |access-date=19 September 2021}}</ref> It satirises the cynicism at the heart of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], showing Hitler and Soviet dictator [[Joseph Stalin]] bowing politely across the [[Second Polish Republic|dead body of Poland]] and greeting each other respectively as "The scum of the earth, I believe?" and "The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?". The phrasing is based on that supposedly used by [[Henry Morton Stanley]] at his meeting with [[David Livingstone]] in 1871, and the dictators are shown raising their hats to one another in greeting similarly to the two explorers in artistic reconstructions of that earlier meeting. The work has been parodied by several other cartoonists.<ref>{{cite tweet |user=jdpoc |first=John |last=O'Connell |number=1439625651967848449 |date=19 September 2021 |title=THIS DAY in 1939, Punch [SIC] published this iconic David Low cartoon, 'Rendezvous', on the occasion of the Nazi-Soviet pact. It has been parodied often, but never bettered. }} ''et seq''.</ref>

''The Harmony Boys'' of 2 May 1940<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/propaganda/ |title=Study of Propaganda & War – History:Introduction |publisher=[[University of Kent]] |access-date=26 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530083051/http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/propaganda/ |archive-date=30 May 2009 }}</ref> depicts Hitler, Stalin, Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]], and Spanish dictator [[Francisco Franco]] "harmonizing" and getting along quite well. When this cartoon was published, the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]] was still more than a year in the future.

His satirical works met much criticism in the British public eye. The British press called him a "war monger," and many citizens felt disdain for his depictions of appeasement.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

===Remainder of career===
Low remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of his career. He left the ''Evening Standard'' in 1950. That same year, he moved to the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' and stayed there until 1953. Finally, Low moved to the ''[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]]'' and was there from 1953.

Low received a [[knighthood]] in the [[1962 Birthday Honours]] and died at his home in London on 19 September 1963.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42683 |date=2 June 1962 |page=4308 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=7YDsjoNalFohcnPRUNTRZA&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=16 July 2017|work=[[FreeBMD]]|publisher=ONS}}</ref> His obituary in ''The Guardian'' described him as "the dominant cartoonist of the western world".<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary|work=The Guardian|url=http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/19september.htm|access-date=30 November 2010}}</ref>

A [[blue plaque]] commemorates Low at 33 Melbury Court, Kensington.<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web| url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/low-sir-david-1891-1963|title=LOW, SIR DAVID (1891–1963)|publisher=[[English Heritage]]| access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

===Personal life===
{{multiple image | align = right | total_width = 345 | direction = horizontal
| width1 =280 | image1 = SIR DAVID LOW 1891-1963 Cartoonist lived here at No. 33.jpg | alt1 =
| width2 = 280 | image2 = SIR DAVID LOW - Melbury Court Kensington High Street Kensington London W8 6NH.jpg | alt2 =
| footer = ''Left'': The [[English Heritage]] blue plaque commemorating Low at Melbury Court on [[Kensington High Street]]<br />''Right'': Melbury Court in May 2015}}
Low married Madeline Grieve Kenning of Auckland on 7 June 1920 in [[St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden]]; they lived for many years in [[Golders Green]], North London.<ref name='AustralianDB'>{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=low-sir-david-alexander-cecil-7250|title=Low, Sir David Alexander Cecil (1891–1963)|access-date=3 December 2016}}</ref> The couple had two daughters: in 1939, Time described Low's breakfast as "a political meeting, with the cartoonist, his wife, and his two young daughters threshing out the news." His wife and daughters survived him.<ref name='AustralianDB'/> In 1991 a [[Blue plaque]] was erected to commemorate his life at Melbury Court, Kensington High Street, London, W8 6NH in the [[Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]].<ref>[https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/david-low/ English heritage Official Site] Retrieved 28 February 2022</ref>