Frank John Minnitt (3 September 1894 – 12 May 1958) was a British illustrator and cartoonist who drew for over 100 comic papers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his depictions of

Billy Bunter William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly ...

in the comic '' Knockout'' between 1939 and 1958. Minnitt was born in Southgate in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1894, the youngest of five sons of Mary Ann Smith (1854-1943) and William Robinson Minnitt (1858-1927). Educated at the Hugh Myddleton School in Islington, aged 14 he was the London Junior Boxing Champion; later, he followed his father into working for the General Post Office (GPO) before serving with the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was sent to France where he suffered injuries from mustard gas'Sothebys called in to verify cartoon copper' - ''Echo'' 15 August 2010
/ref> which affected him for the rest of his life. After the war Minnitt returned to the General Post Office, later working as a welder with a taxi firm before becoming an artist. A completely self-taught cartoonist, around 1920 Minnitt began to contribute single joke cartoons to the comics of the

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

(AP). Subsequently, his work appeared in various titles including ''Comic Life'', ''Joker'', ''Merry & Bright'', ''Butterfly'', ''Jolly'' and ''Sparkler''.Frank Minnitt on ''Lambiek Comiclopedia''
/ref> From 1936 he began to submit work to D.C. Thomson and his drawings appeared in the Fun Section of ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, N ...

'' and ''

The Dandy ''The Dandy'' was a British children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after '' Il Giornalino'' (cover dated 1 O ...

''. He took over drawing

’s picture strip from C. H. Chapman in Amalgamated Press’s '' Knockout'' comic in 1939, drawing the popular character in a round-style. Minnitt drew a beaming and bouncy Bunter, which at first followed Chapman's style, then later branched into a style of his own, concentrating on slapstick humour. By 1942 the Famous Five had vanished from the strip, replaced by Jones Minor, who had all the good qualities Bunter lacked, but who was prone to being led astray by Bunter. The form-master, Mr Quelch, stayed (at least in name), but he lost his dignity and aloofness. It was an entirely different

Greyfriars School Greyfriars School is a fictional English public school used as a setting in the long-running series of stories by the writer Charles Hamilton, who wrote under the pen-name of Frank Richards. Although the stories are focused on the Remove (or l ...

from that described by Charles Hamilton in ''

The Magnet ''The Magnet'' was a British weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1,683 issues. Each issue cost a halfpenny and contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars S ...

'' but it became immediately popular, with Minnitt continuing to draw Bunter until shortly before he died in 1958. In the mid to late 1940s his work appeared in a number of different short-run titles issued by small publishers; these included ''Comicolour'', ''Jingo'', ''Swell Comic'', ''Big Laugh'', and various others. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he lived in

Leigh-on-Sea Leigh-on-Sea (), commonly referred to simply as Leigh, is a town and civil parish in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. In 2011, it had a population of 22,509. Geography Leigh-on-Sea is on the northern ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. He married Alice Davie in 1919, and had a daughter Betty (1920–2009). He married Evelynne Thelma Snell (1912–2003) in 1947 and with her had a son, John Frank Minnitt (born 1950). On his death the drawing of Billy Bunter in ''Knockout'' was taken over by artists Eric Roberts and Reg Parlett.

References

Sources

* ''Frank Minnitt'' by Alan Clark (''Golden Fun'', Summer 1986) * ''Knockout Comic: An Illustrated Guide'' by David Ashford, John Allen-Clarke & Steve Holland (CJ Publications, 1997)

External links

Minnitt
on the '' Dan Dare'' - The Golden Age of AP Comics website {{DEFAULTSORT:Minnitt, Frank 1894 births 1958 deaths British illustrators English cartoonists English comics artists British Army personnel of World War I Coldstream Guards soldiers