Philip
Zec
was
born in 1910. After training at the St.
Martin's School of Art, he worked at an advertising agency, where
he met William Connor, who was later
to become Cassandra of the Daily Mirror.
Eventually Zec left the agency to form his own successful commercial
art studio.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Connor
introduced Zec to H. G. Bartholomew, the editorial
director of 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.
Zec sometimes upset the British government with his cartoons. On 5th
March, 1942, the Daily Mirror published
a cartoon on the government's decision to increase the price of petrol.
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."
The
price of petrol has been increased by one penny." Official
Philip Zec, The Daily Mirror (5th
March, 1942)
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.
Churchill arranged for MI5 to investigate
Zec's background, and although they reported back that he held left-wing
opinions, there was no evidence of him being involved in subversive
activities.
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.
Zec,
who continued to
work for the Daily Mirror after the
war and was eventually elected to the board of directors of the Daily
Mirror Group. In 1951 Zec had the unpleasant task of informing
H. G. Bartholomew that he was dismissed as
editorial director. Philip Zec died in
1983.
"Here
you are! Don't lose it again."
Philip Zec, The Daily Mirror (8th
May, 1945)
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