Art tells the story of WW1
The young people taking part in the project had a fascinating visit from the creator of the Staniforth website. We learnt a great deal about the realities of the first world war and in particular how it affected the local people of Cardiff.
Joseph Morewood Staniforth was born at Gloucester on 16 May 1863, the fourth son of Joseph Staniforth, a saw repairer and cutler from Sheffield, and his wife Mary Morewood, from Norton in Derbyshire. Joseph grew up in Cardiff, attending St John’s national schools, and leaving full-‐time education aged fifteen to begin a printer’s apprenticeship with the daily newspaper the Western Mail. After a spell as a lithographer, and having taken evening classes in art, Staniforth’s talent as an illustrator was noted by editor Lascelles Carr, who transferred him to the editorial team. He began to draw cartoons (signed with his initials, ‘J.M.S.’) for the Western Mail’s sister paper the Evening Express, these occasionally appearing in the Mail itself. In 1893, after Carr and his associates took over the Sunday News of the World, they redesigned the paper’s layout, placing Staniforth cartoons on the front page of every issue. By 1900 the Western Mail was carrying his cartoons at least five days a week. Although occasionally interrupted by illness, this pattern remained in place until Staniforth’s death, when it was estimated that he had drawn fifteen thousand cartoons (‘dealing with every conceivable subject’ (Western Mail, 19 December 1921)) in the course of his career. As one of the first political cartoonists working in the British press, Staniforth reached a mass market for almost three decades, his printed output constituting a remarkably coherent record of his interpretation of the times.
Staniforth.
Cafodd y bobl ifanc oedd yn cymryd rhan ymweliad hynod ddiddorol gan grëwr gwefan Staniforth. Dysgasom lawer am wirioneddau’r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf ac yn arbennig am ei effaith ar bobl leol Caerdydd.
Ganwyd Joseph Morewood Staniforth yng Nghaerloyw ar 16 Mai 1863, y pedwerydd mab i Joseph Staniforth, trwsiwr llifiau a chyllyll o Sheffield, a’i wraig Mary Morewood, o Norton yn Swydd Derby. Tyfodd Joseph i fyny yng Nghaerdydd, gan fynychu ysgolion cenedlaethol St John, gan adael addysg llawn amser yn 15 mlwydd oed i gychwyn prentisiaeth fel argraffydd gyda’r papur dyddiol y Western Mail. Yn dilyn cyfnod fel lithograffydd, ac wedi cymryd rhan mewn dosbarthiadau nos mewn celf, sylwodd y golygydd Lascelles Carr ar dalent Staniforth fel darlunydd, a’i drosglwyddo i’r tîm golygyddol. Cychwynnodd greu cartwnau (wedi eu llofnodi â llythrennau cyntaf ei enw ‘J.M.S.’ ar gyfer chwaer bapur y Western Mail, yr Evening Express, a rhain weithiau’n ymddangos yn y Western Mail ei hunan. Yn 1893, ar ôl i Carr a’i gydweithwyr feddiannu’r Sunday News of the World, aethant ati i ail-ddylunio’r papur, gan osod cartwnau Staniforth ar y dudalen flaen ym mhob rhifyn. Erbyn 1900 roedd y Western Mail yn cynnwys ei gartwnau am o leiaf bum diwrnod yr wythnos. Er gwaethaf rhai cyfnodau o salwch, parhaodd y patrwm hwn hyd farwolaeth Staniforth, pan amcangyfrifwyd ei fod, yn ystod ei yrfa, wedi creu 15,000 o gartwnau ‘yn ymdrin â phob pwnc o dan haul’. (Western Mail, 19 Rhagfyr 1921). Fel un o gartwnwyr gwleidyddol cyntaf y wasg Brydeinig, cyrhaeddodd Staniforth y farchnad dorfol am bron i dri degawd, ei allbwn printiedig yn dehongli’r cyfnod mewn dull hynod ddealladwy.