Michael Cummings

Arthur Stuart Michael Cummings MBE (born Leeds, Yorkshire, 1 June 1919, died London, 9 October 1997) was a British newspaper cartoonist. He was known as Michael Cummings and signed his work simply Cummings.

Early life

Cummings's mother was an artist, while his father was political editor of the Liberal News Chronicle daily newspaper of London. He was educated at The Hall, Hampstead, London, Gresham's School, in Norfolk, then at the Chelsea School of Art, London. He also liked reading.

During the Second World War he worked for the Air Ministry and became a major contributor to the training journal Aircraft Recognition.

Work

Cummings saw himself as "a rude little boy speaking out at the awkward moment", but to many of his critics he was a bigoted racist and reactionary. Common targets of Cumming's pen were the Labour Party, left-leaning town councils, trade unions, student activists, the Soviet Union and immigration. Amongst his fellow cartoonists, Vicky in particular hated Cummings, claiming – according to the journalist James Cameron – that "he was the only man entitled to draw with a Post Office nib": "He also despised his political attitudes and said he was a time-server."

Honours

• 1983 – Member of the Order of the British Empire