"Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it."
This cartoon launched the career of Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. Originally, it was something he painted on the side of a barn during one of his rest days early in the war when he was a lowly foot slogger, and it took off from there. Soldiers on leave would go on a quasi pilgrimage to see the original painting. Something about this spoke to the experience of the ordinary soldier, and the 'If you knows a better 'ole' became a byword throughout the armies of the British Empire. With every bombardment a new rookie soldier would express his fear, and inevitably some older hand would chirp in with the caption of this cartoon. With the popularity of this one, Bairnsfather was given a promotion and became the first- and so far, the only- official cartoonist of the British Army. Though promoted to Captain, Bairnsfather never forgot his roots in the early days of the war, and many soldiers throughout the Empire found that he captured something essential about the experience of the war, in a way that made the war slightly more survivable. After the war his cartoons were collected and published, and many a well thumbed copy was part of a veteran's library till the end of their days.
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