Mike Peyton (20 January 1921 – 25 January 2017) was a British cartoonist, described by his biographer as ‘the world’s greatest yachting cartoonist’.

Biography

Mike Peyton was born into a mining family in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, the son of a disabled First World War veteran. Having lied about his age to join the army himself, he was seconded by the intelligence corps to draw maps of the North African desert during the Second World War. Despite escaping twice he spent most of the war in a prisoner of war camp. Freed by the advancing Soviet army, he fought alongside Russian troops as they invaded Nazi Germany from the East. After the war Peyton worked as a freelance cartoonist for the

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

for 35 years, as well as contributing cartoons to a wide range of magazines, including the Church of England Times, Corsetry & Underwear, Practical Boat Owner and

Yachting Monthly ''Yachting Monthly'' is a monthly magazine about yachting published by Future PLC. It is edited by Theo Stocker. History and profile At its launch in 1906, from the offices of The Field, ''The Manchester Guardian'' reviewed the first issue descr ...

. His biography, ''PEYTON: The World’s Greatest Yachting Cartoonist'', was written by Dick Durham and published by

Adlard Coles Nautical Adlard Coles Nautical is a nautical publisher, with over 300 books in print. The company publishes books on topics of interest to sailors and motorboaters and also ‘landlubbers’ with an interest in the sea. Their list includes almanacs, cruis ...

in 2010. In 2012 the

Royal Cruising Club The Royal Cruising Club (RCC) is a British yacht club founded in London in 1880 to support leisure sailing. It is most widely known for the series of pilotage books produces under the auspices of the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation, a ...

gave Peyton their award for lifetime services to yachting.Yachting Monthly
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Personal life

Peyton was married to bestselling author

K. M. Peyton Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton (born 2 August 1929), who writes primarily as K. M. Peyton, is a British author of fiction for children and young adults. She has written more than fifty novels including the much loved " Flambards" series of storie ...

and lived in Essex.

Selected bibliography

* ''Out of Our Depth'', 2009,

* ''Mike Peyton’s Floating Assets'', 2008,

* ''Ever Wonder Why We Do It?'', 2007,

* ''Quality Time: 50 Years of Sailing'', 2005, John Wiley & Sons

References

1921 births 2017 deaths English cartoonists {{UK-cartoonist-stub