Francis Wilford-Smith
| Francis Wilford-Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 March 1927 Rugby, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 4 December 2009 (aged 82) Ledbury, Herefordshire |
| Nationality | UK |
| Occupation | Cartoonist, graphic designer, record producer, expert on blues music |
Francis Wilford-Smith (12 March 1927 – 4 December 2009) was a British cartoonist, graphic artist, and producer and archivist of blues music. As a cartoonist, he used the pseudonym Smilby, a contraction of his surname with his wife's maiden name.
He was born Francis Wilford Smith (without hyphenation) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, the second son of pharmacist Wilford Smith and Frances Hunt, who died shortly after his birth. He attended Warwick School, where he began drawing cartoons, but left at the age of 16 to train as a radio operator. He joined the Merchant Navy, serving during the Second World War on convoys to Africa and across the Atlantic. During this time he also worked as an undercover courier and agent for US Naval Intelligence, intercepting telephone conversations and collecting and delivering material to US consular staff in the Belgian Congo and Persian Gulf.
In 1946, he began attending Camberwell School of Art in London, specialising in illustration and wood engraving. While there, he met and, in 1949, married Pamela Kilby, which led to their collective nickname of "Smilby". He then became an art teacher, and for a time worked as an animator with Halas and Batchelor, before becoming assistant display manager for the women's clothing chain Richard Shops and assistant to the industrial designer Ian Bradbury. However, by 1951, his cartoons had begun appearing in Punch and other magazines, and he became a full-time cartoonist, later working for the Daily Telegraph, Playboy, and many others. From the early 1960s, he also worked widely in Europe and the USA, publishing cartoons in various periodicals including The New Yorker, Esquire, and the Saturday Evening Post.
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