Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred was a British strip cartoon published in the Daily Mirror from 1919 to 1956 (with a break c. 1940–1950), as well as the Sunday Pictorial in the early years.

[1] The characters Pip, Squeak and Wilfred were created by Bertram Lamb, a journalist on the Daily Mirror, who was born in Islington, London, on 14 May 1887 and died in Switzerland in 1938.

Wilfred was found in a field near his burrow and was adopted by Pip and Squeak, who were in turn looked after by Uncle Dick and Angeline, the housemaid of their family house on the edge of London.

[2] It was named the Wilfredian League of Gugnuncs (WLOG) and organised many competitions and events for thousands of members, especially at British south-coast seaside resorts.

A series of silent animated cartoons was produced in 1921 by Lancelot Speed titled 'The Wonderful Adventures of Pip, Squeak & Wilfred'.

Titles included 'Pip And Wilfred Detectives', 'Over The Edge Of The World', 'The Six-Armed Image', 'The Castaways', 'Ups And Downs', 'Popski's Early Life', 'Wilfred's Nightmare', 'Wilfred's Wonderful Adventures' and 'Trouble In The Nursery'.

An early book was Pip, Squeak & Wilfred, Their "Luvly" Adventures, issued in 1921 by Stanley Paul & Co., London.

As their title suggests, the books were in an elaborate competition format where you had to solve quizzes, paint in pictures and similar to win prizes.

A newly bow-tied Wilfred and a younger Auntie, both previously only saying the odd nonsensical word, were now made to speak fully, losing the innocence and surreal charm of the pre-war years to fit the 1950s better.

A small paperback comic book, Adventures of Pip Squeak & Wilfred, was published in the early 1920s in the Merry Miniatures series by Home Publicity of London and was just 1.5 by 3 inches (3.8 by 7.6 cm) in size.

[3] After the First World War the Royal Air Force named its three Blackburn Kangaroo training aircraft Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.

[5] During the first stage of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine two anti-aircraft guns and one searchlight were taken, with their crews, from HMS Sussex (96) and mounted on trucks in order to provide fire support to ground units.