Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie (30 April 1880 – 1967) was an

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...

. Crombie was the third son of Scots architect James Crombie and his wife Bridget Philadelphia Vince. Born at

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, Scotland, Charles grew up in the 1880s and 1890s in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, his father being partner in the London architectural practice Byrne & Crombie. By 1901 Charles Crombie was working as a sculptor and artist, from his family home at 25 Rumsey Road, Lambeth. Charles Crombie specialised in cartoons and publication illustrations. His collection of humorous postcard cartoons "The Rules of Golf" was published by Perrier in 1906, and rapidly became a best-selling series. Other similar sporting themes (including "The Rules of Cricket") followed with equal commercial success. He married Helena Wallace (of Wadhurst, Sussex) in Lambeth in 1907, and by 1911 the couple were living at Hogarth House, Richmond Upon Thames, Surrey. Their daughter Irene Crombie was born there in 1914. In 1915, part of Hogarth House was sold to leading Bloomsbury Set socialites Leonard and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, who named their hobby business the

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

after the building. Charles Crombie continued to produce illustrations for books and magazines in the UK and US throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including the Dodd Mead edition of W. M. Thackeray's '' Vanity Fair'' (New York City, 1924). He illustrated 11 of P. G. Wodehouse's

Jeeves Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie W ...

short stories published in ''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

'' between 1926 and 1930. Charles Crombie died in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

, Hertfordshire aged 86 in 1967.

References

Scottish editorial cartoonists Scottish illustrators Scottish sculptors Postcard artists 1967 deaths 1880 births {{UK-cartoonist-stub