DUDLEY WATKINS 1907—1969

Born in Manchester to a lithographer and his wife, Dudley Dexter Watkins grew up in Nottingham and studied at the(Aurum, 2006), “his big-chinned, big-hearted cartooning and robust adventure art came to define the company’s clear, friendly style”. In 1936, he created with editor Robert Duncan Low , about an extended working-class family living in a small tenement flat, and , about a mischievous spiky-haired boy; both strips debuted in the newspaper the , which still publishes them to this day. Watkins also drew the strip in the first issue of the in 1937, which starred a cowboy whose strength was only exceeded by his appetite (favourite food: cow pies, complete with horns and tail), and he illustrated all three strips until his death in 1969, an unfinished adventure on his desk. His work for the included and , and in 2013 he was awarded a commemorative plaque by Historic Environment Scotland.