Reg Smythe (1917 - 1998; Hartlepool, UK)
Born in Hartlepool, the son of a boat builder. He left school at 14 and worked as a butcher's delivery boy, joined the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1936, submitting cartoons to Cairo magazines during the war. He worked as a post office telephone clerk before freelancing as a cartoonist for the Daily Mirror in 1954.

Influenced by his mentor Leslie Harding ("Styx") he produced a regular feature Laughter at Work before creating Andy Capp in 1957. Syndicated worldwide to 1400 newspapers in 31 countries, read by 175 million people in 13 languages, the strip based on the flat-capped Northerner has become an institution.