Alexander Steel Graham (Partick, Glasgow, 2 March 1918 – 3 December 1991, Ticehurst ) was a Scottish cartoonist who created the comic strip '' Fred Basset''.

Biography

Alexander Steel Graham was educated at

Dumfries Academy 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 ...

. He studied under William Hutchison at the Glasgow School of Art. During the war he served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, seeing action in Normandy - two of Graham's war drawings are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum in London. 'Wee Hughie' appeared in 1945 in D C Thomson's ''Weekly News'' and ran for twenty years. 'Briggs the Butler' became a fixture in ''Tatler''. Graham drew regularly for ''Punch'' and had a series, 'The Eavesdropper,' in ''The New Yorker''. He produced many collections of his cartoons, including 'Graham's Golf Club' and 'Daughter in the House'. Graham's best known creation, Fred Basset, is a comic strip about a thinking

basset hound The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog in the hound family. The Basset is a scent hound that was originally bred for the purpose of hunting hare. Their sense of smell and ability to ''ground-scent'' is second only to the Bloodhound.Har ...

which began in the ''Daily Mail'' on 8 July 1963. It has since been syndicated around the world. Alex Graham died on 3 December 1991 (aged 73).

References

Scottish cartoonists Scottish comics artists 1913 births 1991 deaths People educated at Dumfries Academy British comic strip cartoonists {{UK-cartoonist-stub