Frank Bellamy and the Kettering Leader and Guardian

 MERRY CHRISTMAS - here's my gift to the world!

Kettering Leader and Guardian 26 December 1947 p.6

According to the Newspaper Directory (1946-1947, p. 127) the Kettering Leader and Guardian newspaper was established in 1882 and "is characterised by its original articles, the fullness and accuracy of its reports, and the excellence of its illustrations" [emboldening mine]

The reason I'm looking at the KLG is because of a cutting I found among some papers that Nancy Bellamy loaned to me and because of the kindness of Tony Smith, who interviewed Frank Bellamy several times [CORRECTION: "for the record, I only interviewed Frank the one time, not several, but I have the honour of being the last journalist to do so before he died in 1976"]. The cutting has been pinned down and appeared in 1955 (you can see below) and Tony set me on a search which saw a LOT of Bellamy material never seen before - well, other than by the people who read KLG in the 1940s!

Kettering Leader & Guardian 11 November 1955, p.3
It says "Swift", "Girl" and "Lilliput" -
to my knowledge Bellamy did not have any work in "Girl"

Bellamy produced many cartoons for the Pink 'Un, the sport extra - which was published by the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph for whom he also did illustrations.  I've browsed microfilm of the 1947 Kettering Leader and Guardian (and Northamptonshire Advertiser - to give it its full name) a weekly newspaper that appeared on Fridays and contained many local stories including issues made up of local opinions and anecdotes. The picture at the top of this article and the following come from a double page called "In peace or in war these are the Christmases remembered best of all" in which locals submit stories. This would be the first Christmas at home for many returning to Kettering after the war.

Kettering Leader and Guardian 26 December 1947 p.7

But there was a regular feature that Bellamy illustrated which began 14 March 1947 through the whole of 1947 missing only a few weeks: gardening tips! Here's the one for Boxing Day 1947 from the same issue as the images above.

Kettering Leader and Guardian 26 December 1947 p.9
Why Bellamy shows a pawnbroker polishing his three balls, I don't know

[UPDATE: If you'd like to see the visual jokes Bellamy created to accompany the column, written by 'Riston', I've added them to the blog]. Bellamy uses phrases from the script and makes a joke or pun around them.

Kettering Leader and Guardian 6 June 1947 p.12

I asked Tony about the name Riston (or "Ristone" as he becomes from 30 May 1947 most of the time!) and he replied:

No idea who Riston was - probably code for the real writer’s name, which they tended to do that in those days (usually when the column was not written by a bona-fide journalist). Even in my day, one of the Evening Telegraph’s compositors, Bill Crabb, wrote the racing column giving tips for the day under the byline Billet - (Bill ET, get it?).

If anyone knows, please get in contact.

Tony shared this with me.

Kettering Leader and Guardian 27 June 1947 p.1

This appeared on the front page taking up most of the cover. Unfortunately I couldn't read the story of the old cabbie as the microfilm was unfortunately not at all clear, the story appearing in the newspaper gutter. Well that's 1947 done, now to travel backwards and forwards! Happy New Year to you all!