They were living in Bristol in 1938 when Barry contracted pneumonia and died, leaving Patricia (who was pregnant with her second child, Patsy) to fend for her family.

Fearing that he had been killed, the firemen feverishly cleared the rubble only to find him soundly asleep in his bed, blankets pulled over his head.

When demobilised in 1950 he took a Job at Charles Gilbert's advertising agency in Fleet Street and continued there for the next ten years.

Shortly after this he sold a regular cartoon strip 'Patsy & John' to The Sunday Telegraph and started a long relationship with that newspaper.

Michelle Urry had just become Hugh Hefner's art editor at Playboy, and was busy assembling an international stable of talented cartoonists.

Time & Tide magazine also made a short resurgence in the 1990s and he drew covers for it and for British Airways' High Life.

Other influences were Gerard Hoffnung, his first teacher, Ronald Searle and he also admired the drawings or André François, Tomi Ungerer, Quentin Blake and Adolf Born.

In 1996 he won Gold Prize at the Kyoto International Cartoon Festival and was asked to return to Japan several times after this as a judge.

He and his wife had also developed a great passion for Venice and spent almost all of their holidays exploring its sights and communing with their many friends who lived there.

In 2002 whilst returning from Japan, Raymonde suffered a stroke, which affected his eyesight and his ability to concentrate, making it impossible for him to continue working.