{{Short description|Australian cartoonist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Leslie Lumsdon''' (16 October 1912 – 1977) was a popular Australian cartoonist for the ''Newcastle Morning Herald''.

== Personal life == He was born on 16 October 1912 in Abermain, New South Wales.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=RecordSearch: Leslie Lumsdon|url=https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=5691532&S=1&N=13&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=5691532&T=P&S=1|access-date=2020-10-21|website=National Archives of Australia}}</ref> He married his wife Vera on 1 July 1938.<ref name=":3" />

== Career == His first job was working at his parents' corner store.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2019-03-02|title=Les Lumsdon, a life in cartoons|url=https://www.phototimetunnel.com/les-lumsdon-a-life-in-cartoons|access-date=2020-10-21|website=Photo Time Tunnel|language=en-AU}}</ref> Then he got a job at the advertising department at the Hustler's store in Maitland.<ref name=":0" /> During World War II he worked in the Newcastle camouflage unit.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Lumsdon, Les (1912 - 1977) - Cartoon Gallery|url=http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/cartoon-gallery/artists/lumsdon-les-1912-1980/?c=aus-cartoons|access-date=2020-10-21|website=www.politicalcartoon.co.uk}}</ref> He spent two years in New Guinea where he made extra money drawing postcards which were popular with American troops.<ref name=":0" />

In 1942 his first cartoon strips on Basil appeared in the ''South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus,''<ref>{{cite news|date=30 October 1942|title=BASIL|volume=XXXXIII|page=10|newspaper=South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus|issue=43|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142518726|access-date=22 October 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> the ''Muswellbrook Chronicle''<ref>{{cite news|date=10 November 1942|title=BASIL|volume=22|page=3|newspaper=The Muswellbrook Chronicle|issue=88|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107695931|access-date=22 October 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and the ''Gippsland Times''.<ref>{{cite news|date=21 December 1942|title=(cartoon)|page=4|newspaper=Gippsland Times|issue=11,415|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63253290|access-date=22 October 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> From July 1944 a mouthless boy named Nipper began to appear in cartoons published by the Burnie ''Advocate.''<ref>{{cite news|date=3 July 1944|title=NIPPER|page=4 (DAILY)|newspaper=The Advocate (Australia)|location=Tasmania, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91753823|access-date=22 October 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

In 1946 he was hired by the ''Newcastle Herald'' as a cartoonist.<ref name=":1" /> He was a popular artist who once emptied seventeen pens signing autographs at a Newcastle Show.<ref name=":0" />

He retired from the ''Newcastle Morning Herald'' in 1977 and died later that year.<ref name=":0" />

== Casper the Cat == His most famous drawing was Casper the black cat.<ref name=":0" /> There was public outcry when he drew Casper being drowned in the Newcastle Harbour after failing to pick a Melbourne cup winner.<ref name=":0" /> He published five volumes of cartoons that included Casper.<ref name=":1" />

== Exhibitions == * Artists and cartoonists in black and white in 1999 in the S. H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney, NSW <ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Les Lumsdon :Biography|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/les-lumsdon/biography/|website=Design & Art Australia Online}}</ref> * 50 years of the newspaper cartoon in Australia &nbsp;in 1973 at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA <ref name=":2" /> * Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning, 11 September 1964 - 19 September 1964, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales <ref name=":2" /> * Lake Macquarie City Library, Speers Point, New South Wales<ref name=":2" /> * National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney, NSW<ref name=":2" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lumsdon, Les}} Category:Australian editorial cartoonists Category:Australian comic strip cartoonists Category:Australian comics artists Category:1912 births Category:1977 deaths