Lot 147
Bruce Bairnsfather, 'Old Bill' Mascot.
Old Bill's head, complete with muffler and a signature inscribed around the helmet. Bairnsfather (1888-1959) invented the character of 'Old Bill' at the launch of the 'Bystander' magazine in 1915. He had been a pre-war regular in the British Army but left to train as an artist but was recalled in 1914 and served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment until diagnosed with shell shock in 1915. After which the 'Bystander' commissioned him to draw illustrations which were eventually collected in the six-volume 'Fragments from France'. The mascot helped to capture the mood of the British Army during and after WWI. 4½-inches high, not display-mounted.
