Rowland Emett studied at Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts and one of his landscapes, Cornish Harbour, was exhibited at the Royal Academy. During the Second World War he worked as a draughtsman for the Air Ministry while perfecting his gift for drawing cartoons. From the outbreak of war until the 1950s, and less frequently in the 1960s, he published regularly in Punch and for many years when his work was published elsewhere it was credited to "Emett of Punch". His cartoons were not political, except when he caricatured bureaucratic absurdities, and his early subjects typically found humour in the difficulties of life during the war. His drawings soon started to include railway scenes and he gradually developed a unique concept of strange, bumbling trains with excessively tall chimneys and silly names. In 1953, Malcolm Muggeridge became editor of Punch and began systematic changes, but Emett continued to publish his work there, albeit less frequently. After a spread in Life magazine on 5 July 1954, his work became increasingly popular in the United States.
View Account
