Roy Raymonde

Roy Raymonde (1929–2009) was a British editorial cartoonist who was best known for his work in Playboy, Punch and The Sunday Telegraph. Not only a gag writer he was also much admired for his stylish comic drawings and flamboyant use of colour.

Roy Stuart Raymonde was born in 1929 in Grantham, Lincolnshire to Juliana Patricia Quinn and Barry Raymonde, an advertising agent and theatrical impresario. They were living in Bristol in 1938 when Barry contracted pneumonia and died, leaving Patricia (who was now pregnant with her second child, Patsy) to fend for her family. Their life became peripatetic as Patricia took a series of jobs around the country. During this period Raymonde attended at least 16 different schools. They finally settled in North London just in time for the Blitz. He recounted that the house they lived in in Kingsbury was completely demolished one night by a German land mine. Fearing that he had been killed, the fire men feverishly cleared the rubble only to find him soundly asleep in his bed, blankets pulled over his head.

At the age of 15 Raymonde attended Harrow School of Art. Here he met and was influenced by the yet to become well-known cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung who was at that time a junior tutor. Raymonde told a story of how he was nearly expelled for defacing one of Hoffnung’s demonstration drawings by adding funny captions. Hoffnung himself came to his defense and saved his position by arguing that this act in itself demonstrated a certain latent talent. They remained friends up until Hoffnung’s death in 1959.

On leaving art school he took a job in a commercial art studio where he believed that his association with professional illustrators really taught him his drawing skills. At 18 he was called up to do National Service in Malaya, and worked for British Army intelligence in photoreconnaissance.

When demobilised in 1950 he took a Job at Charles Gilbert’s advertising agency in Fleet Street and continued there for the next 10 years. During this period he also free-lanced as a cartoonist in his spare time and had his work first published in Tit-Bits. He then contributed to Lilliput, The Daily Sketch and drew a regular weekly feature in Drapery and Fashion Weekly called ‘Lil’. In 1953 he married Guyanese journalist Patricia Eytle - sister of Ernest Eytle (BBC Cricket Commentator) Tommy Eytle (Actor and Musician) and Les Eytle (first black Mayor of and Freeman of Lewisham).

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