Reginald Smyth (10 July 1917 – 13 June 1998) was a British cartoonist who created the popular, long-running Andy Capp comic strip.

[1][2] He was born in Hartlepool, County Durham, England, the son of Richard Oliver Smyth, a shipyard worker, and his wife, Florence, née Pearce, the oldest of five children (his siblings being Lily, Harry, Laura and Jimmy).

"[3] He attended Galley's Field School on the Hartlepool Headland but left at fourteen to take a job as a butcher's errand boy.

Promoted to sergeant, he was demoted to corporal for a minor disciplinary offence, and was ultimately medically discharged for a stomach ulcer after a stint in an Edinburgh hospital in 1945.

During this time he developed his talent for drawing, designing posters for amateur dramatic productions[1] and selling cartoons to Cairo magazines.

He thought up Andy Capp, a stereotypically lazy, selfish working-class northerner in a flat cap, and his long-suffering wife Flo,[2] during the seven-hour drive from his mother's house in Hartlepool to London.

[3] While in America the title became "Andy Capp - Our English Cousin," the punning resisted translation: in Sweden it was titled "Tuffa Viktor", in Germany "Willi Wacker", in Austria "Charlie Kappl", in Italy "Carlo e Alice" (instead of Andy and Flo), in The Netherlands "Jan met de Pet", in France "André Chapeau", in Turkey "Güngörmez Dursun", in Iceland "Siggi sixpensari" and in Denmark "Kasket Karl".

[4] In 2007, after years of local speculation and fundraising, a bronze statue commemorating Andy Capp was erected near the Harbour of Refuge pub in Smythe’s home town of Hartlepool.