English humorist, born at Murree, India, on the 9th of July 1887, and educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho. He became a civil engineer, and also had some military experience in a militia battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In 1914 he rejoined this regiment and went to France, serving there until 1916, when he obtained a War Office appointment. Bairnsfather’s reputation as an artist was made by his black-and-white sketches of life in the trenches, which first appeared in The Bystander. His soldier characters became popular favourites, and a play, The Better ’Ole (1917), founded on the adventures of “Old Bill” and his friends, enjoyed a great success. Many of Bairnsfather’s drawings were published in volumes entitled Fragments from France. He also produced Bullets and Billets (1916) and From Mud to Mufti (1919). In 1919 he started Fragments, a weekly comic paper.
