Tom Webster

Who was Tom Webster?

Gilbert Thomas Webster was a British cartoonist and caricaturist.

Born in Bilston, West Midlands, Webster specialised in sporting cartoons. He originally worked in a railway booking office and taught himself to draw. In 1904 he won a newspaper cartoon contest, and this started off his career in cartooning. He started out at the Sports Argus in Birmingham, then later the Evening News, before joining the Daily Mail in 1919. He specialised in cartoons of horseracing, cricket and golf, and stayed at the Mail for over twenty years. In his capacity as a sports cartoonist, he became friends and golf partner with Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman, and one account says it was a combination of clothing worn by Webster that inspired Chapman to add white sleeves to Arsenal's red shirts.

Webster also worked on caricaturising politicians, so much so that on the night of the 1929 general election, a selection of his cartoons was shown in public in London's Trafalgar Square. He left the Daily Mail in 1940, but continued to draw for other newspapers, and his own range of annuals, until 1960. He died in 1962, aged 76.