Kem's Cartoons in the Second World War
Valerie Holman describes the little-known role played by the cartoonist Kem in assisting the British propaganda effort aimed at Iran.
‘When War began and the Ministry of Information was formed I was asked to submit some ideas for our propaganda in the Middle East.’
Nothing in this laconic recollection from the Egyptian-born political cartoonist Kem (Kimon Evan Marengo, 1907-88) hints at the prodigious output of visual material that was to follow. Nor does it give any indication of the extent to which, during the Second World War, the British Government ultimately committed itself to publishing and distributing overseas printed propaganda, from periodicals, posters, tracts and cartoons to tiny cards for packets of tea (produced in millions) and miniature booklets dropped over target cities by the RAF. Once he had been interviewed by a general at the Foreign Office and entered what he referred to as ‘five years of civil servitude’, Kem submitted not only ideas, but well over 3,000 political cartoons in the first four years of the war.
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