About Wally Fawkes
Walter Ernest Fawkes (né Pearsall; 21 June 1924 – 1 March 2023), also known as Trog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist. After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old, he taught himself the clarinet, and first joined a revivalist jazz band with George Webb in 1944. He later created a new, more mainstream band with friend Humphrey Lyttelton, and it soon became one of the leading British jazz bands of the 1950s. Fawkes also achieved success illustrating cartoons under the pen name "Trog". His most notable work in this business was Flook, a comic strip which ran in The Daily Mail newspaper from 1949 to 1984. Initially aimed at children, the strip evolved over time into a gentle satire of British politics. When Flook ended he continued to illustrate until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005 at age 81, leaving him to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Fawkes was first employed painting camouflage on factory roofs to hide them from enemy bombing. When Lyttelton left the Dixielanders in January 1948 to form his own jazz band, Fawkes went with him and stayed there until 1956, by which time it had evolved past revivalism and became more mainstream.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.