Background
Staniforth was born in Gloucester in 1863, the son of a tool repairer.
Staniforth was born in Gloucester in 1863, the son of a tool repairer.
A promising young artist he studied at the Cardiff School of Art, which was run from rooms above the Royal Arcade in the town centre.
His family moved to Cardiff in South Wales in 1870, and after leaving school at 15, Staniforth trained as a lithographic printer for the Western Mail before becoming an art reviewer. Staniforth originally worked primarily in paint, but slowly moved from brush work to inks where he found a talent for cartoons and caricature. He started publishing cartoons in 1889 after being spotted by the Western Mail"s editor Henry Lascelles Carr.
Usually published in the Western Mail, Staniforth"s drawings and cartoons covered political and social unrest in Wales from 1890 through to the First World War.
In 1911 Staniforth was commissioned, by then Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George to produce a piece of artwork to commemorate the investiture of Prince Edward as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The artwork, in pencil and watercolour, was kept by Lloyd George who hung it in his study.
He was replaced at the Western Mail by Leslie Illingworth upon his death in 1921. Samples of political cartoons
One of Staniforth"s more famous creations was "" (or Mam Cymru), a middle-aged woman dressed in the Welsh national costume, along with Welsh hat, who would embody Wales in a similar way that other cartoonists would use Britannia to symbolise Britain or the British Empire. was normally the voice of reason in Staniforth"s cartoons and is often pictured attempting to discourage others from making decisions that would damage the country.
When a spoken caption was required, would often be depicted talking in a working class valleys vernacular, which stands out against the language used by the more educated figures of authority she challenges.
Other cartoonists would later take up the figure of, and would keep the same image in their work. Cartoons depicting.
Although his cartoons followed editorial lines, with editor Carr appearing in several stating his own opinion, Staniforth himself veered more towards the more tolerant Liberal-Labour movement and would attack both capitalist coal owners and the socialist unions.