Keith Roy Waite (19 March 1927, in

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

, New Zealand – 10 April 2014, in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, United Kingdom) was a New Zealand-born editorial cartoonist. He has been referred to as one of the 'greatest-ever social and political cartoonists' in Britain.

Biography

At the age of nine, Waite won a newspaper cartoon competition. He has been quoted as saying "I just knew from an early age that I wanted to be a cartoonist". His interest in art continued and he attended

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

, as well as Auckland Teacher Training College. After teaching for a year, he returned to Elam while working as a free-lance cartoonist for the

Taranaki Daily News The ''Taranaki Daily News'' is a daily morning newspaper published in New Plymouth, New Zealand. History The paper was founded as the ''Taranaki News'' on 14 May 1857, by friends of former Taranaki Province Superintendent Charles Brown.J.S. Tu ...

, the Auckland Weekly News and the

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

. He took up a position at the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...

'' as a staff cartoonist in 1949. In 1951, Waite moved to the United Kingdom contributing to a number of publications including the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', the ''Glasgow Daily Record'', The ''

Scottish Daily News The ''Scottish Daily News'' (''SDN'') was a left-of-centre daily newspaper published in Glasgow between 5 May and 8 November 1975. It was hailed as Britain's first worker-controlled, mass-circulation daily, formed as a workers' cooperative by 500 ...

'', ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' (1952-1964), and ''

Men Only ''Men Only'' is a British magazine title that originated in 1935 as a pocket-sized men's magazine. It became a standard-sized Pin-up model, pin-up magazine in the 1950s and was relaunched in 1971 by Paul Raymond Publications as a soft-core porn ...

'' magazine. Between 1957 and 1964 he worked as the chief political cartoonist for the ''

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton. It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers, but in 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry ...

'' in London, producing up to three cartoons a day. He continued to work for London-based publications, including the ''Sun'' (1964–69), the ''Daily Mirror'' (1969–85), the ''Sunday Mirror'' (1970–80) and the City Diary of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (1987-1997). He was made Cartoonist of the Year in 1963 by the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain.

Publications

* ''Just Waite: Cartoons from the Otago Daily Times'' (1950). Dunedin, Otago Daily Times Print. * ''Waite up to date 1959: Cartoons from the Otago Daily Times'' (1951). Dunedin, Otago Daily Times Print. * ''The adventures of Little Mookra,'' by John Emlyn Edwars, illustrated by Keith Waite (1977). London, Methuen Children's Books. * Cooking afloat on sail and power boats, by Fiona Grafton, illustrated by Keith Waite (1979). London, Macmillan. * ''The worlds of Waite: Cartoons from the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror'' (1989). London, Mirror. * ''Sailing past'', by Renee M Waite, illustrated by Keith Waite (1992). London, Seafarer

Exhibitions

* Drawn and Quartered: The World of the British Newspaper Cartoon, 1720-1970, National Portrait Gallery, London (1970) * Not By Appointment, London Press Club (1977) *Public Lives - New Zealand's Premiers and Prime Ministers 1856-2003, National Library of New Zealand (2003)

External links

Search for material relating to Keith Waite on DigitalNZ

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waite, Keith 1927 births 2014 deaths British cartoonists New Zealand cartoonists New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom People from New Plymouth