At the kind suggestion of Ron at Market-Garden.info, I offer the following request: I'm seeking images of the popular British WWII cartoon character "Mr. Chad". It is widely reported that "Chad" was seen chalked on the fuselage of an Operation Market Garden glider asking "Wot, no engines?" but I have been unable to locate a photo. Any other "Chad" cartoons ("Wot, no beer?", "Wot, no ciggies?", etc.) appreciated as well. Thanks!
Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sure that you will get lots of responses to your question. Regards Tom
Welcome aboard ! Thought you might like to see my own Chad drawing, drawn in 1946 whilst I was serving in the Trieste area. It's on Page 72 and, as I wrote at the time, I asked the question "Wot ! leave again ?"
Ron Is your question adressed to me ? If it is then the Page 72 mentioned is in my Army Album: Ron Goldstein's Actual Army Album There's 90 pages in the bloody thing and it was created while I was awaiting demob from Italy in 1946. Regards Ron
Ah, sorry Ron, I actually meant to ask where the drawings of the cartonist were published at that time. Ron
It seems likely Mr Chad was the creation of George Edward Chatterton, a cartoonist at the Daily Mirror in the late 1930s who drew the cartoon "Chad by Chat". I've been building up the courage to buy a temporary pass to the Mirror's digital archive -- it is not inexpensive -- to start digging through back issues for Mr Chad. Still, the glider photo -- or any other image of Chad in the field -- would be wonderful if it can be found.
Hi, Ron; Would it be possible to get an image that shows your entire "Mr Chad"? I'd like to submit it for consideration for publication with my magazine article on war cartoonists when it is finished. Beautiful book, by the way. Absolutely museum quality! --jerry
Hi, Ron; Would it be possible to get an image that shows your entire "Mr Chad"? I'd like to submit it for consideration for publication with my magazine article on war cartoonists when it is finished. Beautiful book, by the way. Absolutely museum quality! --jerry Jerry Took a snap for you, as if I try to fold the page back any more the book will collapse, it is, after all, 64 years old Regards Ron
Ron, you're the best! I know what you mean about your book: My spine is ready to collapse, too. Too many hours spent off-road in 4x4s, 6x6s, and APCs. Or is it just old age? The former, I like to think. Thanks: I owe you one. --jerry
There is some thought that Chad lost his "Wot! No ...?" message and gained "Kilroy was here", at least among American personnel; that is, Chad and Kilroy became combined somehow. What do you think? Thanks, --jerry
Did you see "Kilroy was here" images as well as Chad? Don't remember seing any images at all with the Kilroy message. Usually it was written on walls, etc., wherever it would provoke amusement.
IMHE there's almost a total lack of Chad drawings or pictures on the web, most of the references are to the identical US charactor Kilroy. I'll have a butchers through some books and see if I can't drum up some references for you.
Thank you. I've heard that Chad appeared on posters for dances and social events at RAF Cardington Bedfordshire in England in 1938 and that Chad was on posters in 1938/1939 at RAF Farnborough and RAF Little Rissington. I have yet to find examples of those posters but I'm still looking. I emailed the RAF Museum but have not received a reply. The WW2TALK Forum has been my most productive line of enquiry: Thanks, guys!
Hi everyone, I've been putting together a page about the differences between US and UK language including common differences. I was born in 1958 and grew up drawing Chad pictures - we never heard of Kilroy and like 84Bravo20 I'm struggling to find an authentic Chad drawing - It's good to see Ron Goldstein's Chad sketch in his book which is similar to how I remember Chad. On the Kilroy Wikipedia page it suggests it was derived/orginated from the Chad cartoon and there's even a few posts on the net about cartoons in the Daily Mirror from the original cartoonist - I can't find those which is very frustrating. There are various mentions of other variants, some with the single hair in the shape of a question mark and the eyes as crosses but as a kid I don't remember those. They say history is written by the winners and even though we were on the same side as the Americans it look like Chad has been relegated to a footnote in history which is a shame. If anyone has ANY images or links to original images please share them and I'll do my best to put this right on my page. Thank you.
Here's the "Wot! No Engines?" chalk drawing shown on a Horsa that was taken from a video which claims to be OMG footage. I find however many of these compilations are mixed footage from different campaigns. A somewhat different design than the Chad character though perhaps inspired in someway by the original. Regards ...
The back page of Alan Cooper's book "Wot!... No Engines?" contains a whole page on the origin's of Mr. Chad taken from "Upside Down Again: another book of RAF Humour" Paraphrasing, RAF Wireless and Radar mechanics were trained at RAF Yatesbury and taught to draw the sine wave of how AC voltage varied over cycle. Some wag spotted that the graph could be made to resemble a character looking over a wall and was named "Doomie". Soon the trainees would scrawl the character with captions such as "Doomie says...." all over the lavatory walls at RAF Yatesbury. As the story goes, RAF Yatesbury had one Wing Warrant Officer Chadwick (known as Mr. Chad) who issued an ultimatum that if the graffiti didn't stop then the lavatory doors would be removed. The response was Doomie cartoons with the caption "Wot! No doors?" signed "Chad". It goes on to say that with the trainees being assigned the character spread across the RAF and the author had first seen it on a lavatory door at RAF Aboukir, Egypt in 1940.
