A REVIVED ALLIANCE. - an original printed appearance of this cartoon featuring Winston S. Churchill from the 20 July 1932 edition of the magazine Punch, or The London Charivari

London: Punch, 1932. This original printed appearance of a Punch cartoon featuring Winston S. Churchill comes from the personal collection of Gary L. Stiles, author of Churchill in Punch (Unicorn Publishing Group, 2022). His book is the first ever effort to definitively catalog, describe, and contextualize all of the many Punch cartoons featuring Churchill.

This cartoon titled "A REVIVED ALLIANCE" appeared thus on p.73 of the 20 July 1932 issue of Punch. The artist is A. W. Lloyd. The cartoon is captioned "Messrs. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill draw their bows in a common offensive."

In 1904, Churchill dramatically quit the Conservative Party to join the Liberals. Together, he and David Lloyd George served as the Liberal Party’s dynamic firebrands, serving for years together in the Cabinet and, when Lloyd George ascended to the premiership, Churchill serving under Lloyd George in a variety of Cabinet posts. Nonetheless, their relationship was not without its strains and when Churchill rejoined the Conservative Party in 1924, divergence in their political opinions deepened.

In 1932, when this cartoon was published, Churchill had begun what would become a decade spent out of power and out of favor, frequently at odds with both his own Conservative Party and prevailing public sentiment. This cartoon references a lively debate on war reparations and disarmament. Punch reported: “Mr. Lloyd George was not at all appreciative of anything or anybody. His roarings – or were they cooings? – echoed those of the right hon. Member for Epping. [Churchill] If Mr. Lloyd George could be anything but himself, one would say he was on this occasion positively Churchillian.”

Punch or The London Charivari began featuring Churchill cartoons in 1900, when his political career was just beginning. That political career would last two thirds of a century, see him occupy Cabinet office during each of the first six decades of the twentieth century, carry him twice to the premiership and, further still, into the annals of history as a preeminent statesman. And throughout that time, Punch satirized Churchill in cartoons – more than 600 of them, the work of more than 50 different artists.

It was a near-perfect relationship between satirists and subject. That Churchill was distinctive in both persona and physical appearance helped make him easy to caricature. To his persona and appearance he added myriad additional satirical temptations, not just props, like his cigars, siren suits, V-sign, and hats, but also a variety of ancillary avocations and vocations, like polo, painting, brick-laying, and writing. All these were skewered as well.

Some Punch cartoons were laudatory, some critical, and many humorous, like the man himself. Nearly always, Churchill was distinctly recognizable, a larger-than-life character whose presence caricature served only to magnify.