Harry
Guy Bartholomew, the son of a clerk, was born in 1878. After elementary
school he went to Slade School of Art.
His first job was as a cartoonist and in 1904 joined the recently
established Daily Mirror. Appointed
as assistant art editor, progress was rapid and by the age of twenty-five
was a director of the newspaper.
On the outbreak of the First World War, Bartholomew
attempted to join the Royal Flying Corps.
He was rejected because of poor eyesight and instead became a war
photographer. Several of his photographs taken at the Western
Front appeared in the Daily Mirror
and after the war went on display at the Imperial War Museum.
After the Armistice Bartholomew returned
to Daily Mirror. Bartholomew held
left-wing opinions but these were held in check by the owner of the
newspaper, Lord
Rothermere.
Bartholomew's influence grew after Rothermere disposed of his shares
in the newspaper in 1931.
Bartholomew was now promoted to editorial director, and with the support
of Cecil King, the advertising director,
began to recruit
radical journalists such as Hugh Cudlipp
and William Connor. Bartholomew noted
the success of newspapers such as the New
York Daily News.
In 1934 Bartholomew and King decided to follow its example and turn
the Daily Mirror into a tabloid newspaper.
Strip cartoons such as Jane, Buck Ryan, Popeye and Garth were added
and Batholomew,
who hated the arrogance and snobbery of the upper classes, encouraged
the editorial staff to develop an anti-establishment tone.
When
Germany and Italy gave support to Franco during the Spanish
Civil War, the Daily
Mirror began a campaign for Britain
to increase defence spending. Stanley Baldwin
was attacked for his complacency and Winston
Churchill was praised for his calls for the government to rearm.
Whereas
newspapers such as the Daily Mail and
the Evening News had given support
to the right-wing governments in Europe, the Daily
Mirror consistently exposed the
image of a harmless Hitler put out by some newspapers sympathetic
to fascism.
Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, William
Connor introduced the cartoonist, Philip Zec,
to H. G. Bartholomew and Cecil Thomas, the
editor of the Daily Mirror. Bartholomew
liked Zec's work and commissioned him to do a daily cartoon. Zec's
cartoons were an immediate success with the readers. Zec, who was
Jewish, felt passionately about the need
to defeat Hitler, produced a series of powerful cartoons on the war.
When Hitler heard about these attacks on his regime, he added Zec's
name to the Nazi Black List of people to be executed after Britain's
defeat.
Bartholomew had worked closely with Winston
Churchill in opposing Neville Chamberlain
in the 1930s. However, the two men were often in dispute once Churchill
became Prime Minister. Churchill was furious when the Daily
Mirror published a cartoon by Philip Zec
on the government's decision to increase the price of petrol in March,
1942. The cartoon showed a torpedoed sailor with an oil-smeared face
lying on a raft. Zec's message was "Don't waste petrol. It costs
lives."
Winston Churchill
believed that the cartoon suggested that the sailor's life had been
put at stake to enhance the profits of the petrol companies. In the
House of Commons, Herbert
Morrison, the Home Secretary, called it a "wicked cartoon"
and Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour,
argued that Zec's work was lowering the morale of the armed forces
and the general public.
Bartholomew and Cecil
Thomas were ordered to appear before Herbert
Morrison at the Home Office. Zec's cartoon was described as "worthy
of Goebbels at his best" and turning on Thomas, Morrison told
him that "only a very unpatriotic editor could pass it for publication".
Morrison informed Bartholomew that "only a fool or someone with
a diseased mind could be responsible" for allowing a newspaper
to publish such material. The government
considered closing down the Daily Mirror
but eventually decided to let the newspaper off with a severe reprimand.
On V.E. Day Donald Zec
produced the extremely powerful cartoon, Here
you are! Don't lose it again. The same cartoon was
used on the front page of the Daily Mirror
on the morning of the 1945 General Election.
Next to the cartoon the text suggested that the best way to preserve
peace was to vote for the Labour Party.
After
the war Bartholomew began to drink heavily. This sometimes clouded
his judgement and in December, 1948 he sacked Hugh
Cudlipp as editor of the Sunday
Pictorial. Cecil
King was furious when he heard the news, and he joined up with
fellow director, Philip Zec, to remove Bartholomew
as editorial director. Soon afterwards, Cudlipp was brought back as
editor of the Sunday
Pictorial, and later as editorial
director of the Daily Mirror Newspapers Group.
The
Daily Mirror (3rd September, 1939)
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