Harold McCready (22 February 1897 - 1972; Salford, Manchester, UK)
He was born in Salford, Manchester, the son of Samuel and Eliza McCready, on 22 February 1897. His father was born in Ireland but came to Lancashire with his family where he worked as an elementary school teacher in Broughton, marrying Eliza McCance in Salford in 1894. Harold was raised in Broughton and began working as a colliery labourer in Chesterfield at the age of 14. He served in the Notts & Derby Regiment and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Warwick Regiment during the Great War.

McCready married Lily Moss in Leeds, Yorkshire, in 1918 and had a son, Desmond Roy McCready who was born in London in 1924. Released from war service in around 1919, he subsequently became an animator, working on the 'Bonzo' series of cartoons for New Era Films in 1924-26. At that time he was living at 133 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith, moving after his marriage to 126 Goldhawk Road. The marriage may not have lasted as he appears to be living on his own in later years at various addresses. During the 1930s he lived at 7 Westwell Road, Wandsworth SW11 [1929-34], 153 Merlin Road, Welling, Bexley Heath [1934-36] and The Drive, Blendon Hall, Bexley Heath [1937-39].

McCready was active as a comic strip artist in the 1930s, drawing 'In the Days of Robin Hood' for The Boys' and Girls' Daily Mail (1934) and 'Invaded by Vikings' for Jolly Jack's Weekly, a comic supplement given away with The Sunday Dispatch (1934).

Unfortunately, he then disappears until 1956 when he began painting the cover strip, 'Jolly Days with Dicky and Dolly', for Playhour. What he was doing in between is unknown, although his clear abilities and large-eyed style might have found a home in, say, Mickey Mouse Weekly, as fellow Dicky and Dolly artist Ron Nielsen had, or in the Associated Press' other nursery papers like Tiny Tots.

These were quite delightful strips, obviously aimed at the very young — simple storylines that could be related in three or four frames, colourfully drawn and full of cheery animal characters. Basically, the tried and tested formula that dated back to Mrs Hippo's Kindergarten fifty years earlier. McCready was probably at his best when he was showing winter landscapes, with snow piled thick on fences and branches, and colourful scenes of summer holidays, fireworks nights and Christmas day frolics. You'll find lots of examples of McCready's Dicky and Dolly at the Look and Learn Picture Gallery.

McCready's work on the strip was intermittent on occasions as he also worked on 'Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm', the cover strip for Jack and Jill in 1957; when Dicky and Dolly were displaced from the front cover in 1959 by 'Tiger Tim and the Bruin Boys', who joined Playhour when it merged with Tiny Tots, McCready was one of the main artists during its nine month run.

Dicky and Dolly returned for another three months as cover stars (1959-60) before they were replaced by TV star 'Sooty', drawn by Gordon Hutchings. McCready launched a new strip, 'Leo the Friendly Lion', based on a character who had appeared in Playhour Annual a couple of years earlier. He remained on the strip only a couple of months before sharing duties drawing 'Sooty' on the cover with Gordon Hutchings, taking over for a run between September and November 1960, plus one episode published in February 1961.

After that, McCready disappears from the pages of Playhour and I've yet to find any other work by him. McCready was living at 21 Jedburgh Street, Battersea S.W.11 in 1957-61 and Brian Woodford, a sub on Playhour in the 1950s, recalls visiting him at Battersea, describing his as "a short, very unassuming man, nothing at all what you would expect of an artist."

Colin Wyatt recalls: "I also went to his house on a couple of occasions to pick up artwork. I remember that on each occasion he just opened his front door, passed over the package, and closed it again."

This latter point is echoed by Brian Woodford: "The first time I went there I remember I couldn't find the street or his house and thought how nice it would be to get there and be offered a glass of something refreshing. Instead, no conversation, simply 'Here it is. Goodbye.' Very unlike Ron Embleton. I remember going to his home and being invited into his studio where we sat and talked about art for more than thirty minutes."

(I'm reminded of a story I heard about Ted Kearon, the artist of Robot Archie, who lived down on the south coast. Anyone visiting Ted to collect artwork was kept waiting on the doorstep by Mrs. Kearon who was keen never to have her husband distracted from his work. If they needed to talk to him, they weren't invited in; instead, Kearon — wearing a smock to keep his clothes clean — was allowed onto the doorstep to quickly deal with any business.)

McCready was, it would seem, fanatical about bullfighting. "I was told that [he] had taken thousands of feet of film using a 35mm film camera which he often carried around in a large holdall," says Colin.

I believe Harold McCready subsequently moved to 7 Luxborough House, Luxborough Street, W.1 [1966-67], and later moved to Richmond upon Thames, where he died in early 1972, aged 75.