John Donegan (1926-2009)

"It's The Wild again"

Cartoonist and designer John Donegan died on 27 April 2009, aged 82. Born in Lewisham on 23 August 1926, John Peter Michael Donegan was the eldest son of Thomas Kieran Donegan and his wife Anne (nee Carley).

After working as a junior draughtsman at United Dairy Engineering Company (1942-45), he found employment in a number of technical drawing and advertising jobs before being appointed art director of David Williams & Ketchum advertising agency in 1958. He left in the early 1960s to join the Sunday Times and designed the Sunday Times Magazine when it launched in 1962. In 1968 he came Creative Director of Sharps Advertising, drawing cartoons in his spare time. In 1975 he became a full-time cartoonist.

His work appeared in Punch and the Sunday Express, where he drew the weekly "Waldo" strip (1981-84). He also worked widely in advertising and was the director of Clixby, three short animated stories for deaf and speech-impaired children, for Pacesetter Enterprises (1983). He often drew dogs in his cartoons, some of which were collected in book form, although he never owned a dog himself. He retired in 1991 to live in France.

Examples of his Punch cartoons can be found here.

Obituaries: The Independent (14 May).

Books
Dog Almighty! London, Souvenir Press, 1986.
Dog Help Us! London, Souvenir Press, 1987.
For Dog's Sake! London, Souvenir Press, 1990.
For the Love of Dog! (omnibus: collection of above three titles). London, Chancellor, 1994.

Books Illustrated
Dogs' Tales by June Whitfield. London, Robson, 1987.

(* artwork © Punch Ltd.)