William H. Conn (1895–1973) was an Irish

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and poster artist. The son of a lithographer, he was educated at the Ulster Provincial School, now

Friends' School, Lisburn Friends' School, Lisburn is a Quaker voluntary grammar school in the city of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, founded in 1774. History Friends’ School Lisburn was founded – as The Ulster Provincial School – on the basis of a bequest in 1764 of ...

. From 1936 he was a staff artist for the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

'' and its sports sister paper ''

Ireland's Saturday Night ''Ireland's Saturday Night'' was a Northern Ireland sports newspaper, which was part of the Belfast Telegraph group. It was launched in 1894 under its original title, ''Ulster Saturday Night'', changing to ''Ireland's Saturday Night'' in 1896 ...

'', creating a regular strip, "The Doings of Larry O'Hooligan", for the latter. He drew a monthly full-page illustration (two pages in the Christmas edition) for ''

Dublin Opinion ''Dublin Opinion'' was an Irish satirical magazine, published monthly from 1922 to 1968. It was founded by cartoonists Arthur Booth and Charles E. Kelly and writer Thomas J. Collins. Booth was its first editor, and drew the covers of the early ...

'' magazine, sometimes satirical, sometimes observational scenes of rural and urban Irish life, sometimes ghostly gothic scenes, and also contributed spot cartoons. He created colour posters for Northern Ireland Railways and exhibited his watercolours and black and white drawings. He died on 25 August 1973 after a three-year illness. He was a lifelong bachelor.

References

*Thomas J. Collins & Charles E. Kelly (eds.), ''Fifteen Years of Dublin Opinion'', Dublin Opinion Ltd, 1937 *Theo Snoddy, ''Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th Century'', Merlin Publishing, 2002

External links

Works by William H. Conn at Ross's Fine Art Auctioneers
1895 births 1973 deaths Artists from Northern Ireland Editorial cartoonists from Northern Ireland Illustrators from Northern Ireland Artists from Belfast {{cartoonist-stub