Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. Captain B.B. goes way back to the First World War were he served in the trenches with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he was injured and was in hospital when he found he had a gift for drawing and he came up the the character " Old Bill ", he then was an Official Cartoonist for the War Office and he came up with a series of Cartoons of " Old Bill " and were soon known worldwide,Postcards,Magazines,Drawings and even pottery depicting his cartoons were sold all over the world, and are highly collectable today fetching high prices. There is even a collectors club in England running today run by Mr Mark Warby who has members all over the world. After ww1 Captain B.B. went on to write books about " Old Bill " and at the start of WW2 he was still doing cartoons for English newspapers and Magazines. When the U.S.Army came over here the " Stars & Stripes " picked him up and used him in their paper. He was stationed in Tynan Abbey with the U.S.Troops 151st Field Artillery and wrote two books, " Jeeps and Jests " and " Just Kiddin ". He also had a small part in the film " A Letter From Ulster " were it shows him in Tynan Abbey drawing a U.S.Soldier. In the book " Jeeps and Jests " you can get a feel for the surronding area of Tynan Abbey in his Cartoons, see for yourselves when you look at the pictures.
A nice sketch of Major General Russell.P.Hartle drawn by Bruce Bairnsfather for his Book "Jeeps & Jest's". Major Gen R.P.Hartle came to N.Ireland in Jan 26th 1942, he was in charge of the 34th Infantry Division,but he was in overall command of the U.S.Armed Forces.N.I.
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather drawing a U.S.Soldier in a trench at Chapel Hill, Tynan 1942.
This is the second book B.B. did for Stars and Stripes.
This is the first book B.B. did for Stars and Stripes.
Two nice drawings done by Bruce Bairnsfather,you can tell they were drawn in Tynan Abbey.
This book was done around the time of the phoney war period 1939-1940 when the British were still in France just prior to the German Blitzkrieg and Dunkirk.