THIS autumn marks the 50th nniversary of the death in a Worcester hospital of one of the best-known names of the First World War.

Bruce Bairnsfather was a hero, no doubt about it, but his fame came not through the bullet or bravery under fire, but through the pen.

His cartoons of the character Old Bill, a walrus moustached and bull-nosed old soldier, raised the spirit of the nation in one of its darkest hours and remain classics to this day. Probably the most famous shows two Tommies sheltering in a shell crater as bombs explode all around with one saying to the other: “Well, if yer knows of a better ‘ole, go to it!”

Although he was born in Warwickshire, in later life Bairnsfather lived at several addresses in Worcestershire and in September 1959 he was admitted to Worcester Royal Infirmary in Castle Street to have his bladder removed. He never recovered and cremation followed in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

To mark the anniversary of his death, several events have been held both in London and in Belgium, near to the village of St Yvon where Bairnsfather drew his first cartoons. There is also a new edition of his most well-known works, titled The Best Fragments from France, compiled and edited by Tonie and Valmai Holt.

Published by Pen & Sword Books, all authors’ royalties will be going to Help for Heroes, the charity that assists victims of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bairnsfather would have appreciated that for he was a soldier himself, serving in the First World War as a captain with a machine gun unit in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

However, by then he was already a burgeoning artist having studied before the war at the John Hassall School of Art. He had also worked as an artist at the Old Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and drawn advertising sketches for several household brands such as Player’s cigarettes, Beecham’s pills and Lipton tea. In 1915 he was hospitalised with shell shock and damage to his hearing sustained during the Second Battle of Ypres and posted to the 34th Division headquarters on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

It was there that his talent for drawing cartoons began to blossom and he began a weekly series of humorous illustrations for the magazine The Bystander depicting life in the trenches. Featuring the curmudgeonly soldier Old Bill, with his trademark moustache and balaclava, they rapidly caught the imagination of both the men on the front line and their families back home.

Bairnsfather became a household name and was officially appointed officer cartoonist, also touring the French, Italian and American armies in this capacity.

After the war he enjoyed a career lasting more than 40 years and covering a great many fields of entertainment. He was an accomplished author, playwright and lecturer. He lived in America for several years and in the 1920s was one of the first celebrities recorded talking on film. Among a raft of publications, Bairnsfather’s work appeared in American magazines such as The New Yorker and Life and English titles Illustrated and John Bull.

The Old Bill character became popular way beyond the battle front and went on to star in books, plays and even films. Comedian Billy Russell took the part on stage, while Syd Chaplin played him in the 1927 film The Better ‘Ole.

After the Second World War, Bairnsfather lived for a long time near Stratford upon Avon, but in 1951 he moved to a cottage at Evendine, Colwall, just below the Malvern Hills. There, he became a familiar figure at the local British Legion, wandering in most mornings for a pint of beer. The club even has a lasting legacy of his stay because eventually he was cajoled into demonstrating his cartoon skills, but instead of using paper, he drew three sketches on a set of folding wooden bar doors.

When the building was replaced the doors were dismantled, Bairnsfather’s sketches cut out and they now hang on the walls of the current Colwall Royal British Legion headquarters.

Speaking in the 1990s, Jack Kitson of Colwall clearly remembered the famous artist dropping into the club for his beer.

He said: “He only used to visit the Legion in a morning. You never saw him there in the evenings. He was always pleasant enough but he wasn’t very communicative. He’d chat to one or two people he got to know, but that was about all. He wasn’t what you’d call the life and soul of the party. In fact, he kept himself to himself.”

In 1957 Bairnsfather bought Chapel Cottage at Littleworth, near Worcester. The property has been much changed over the years and now bears little resemblance to the home where the cartoonist lived.

Following his death, his wife Ceal became increasingly ill and died a few years later in Rashwood Nursing Home, Droitwich, where she lived with a sheaf of Bairnsfather’s letters pinned to her nightdress, refusing to let anyone touch them.

Bruce Bairnsfather lived most of the latter part of his life in total obscurity until he wrote a letter to a national newspaper which published his address.

After that, he was once again reluctantly in the spotlight.

Fifty years later his name is in the headlines and once more associated with military conflict. Afghanistan and Iraq may be almost a century on from the First World War but if cartoons drawn then can help raise money for injured soldiers today Bruce Bairnsfather would have been proud.