h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

ORIGIN OF THE CARTOON CHARACTER - CHAD:

The cartoon caracter Chad was created by my late father cartoonist George Edward Chatterton 'Chat', who first drew Chad in 1937 When Chat was in the Royal Air Force stationed at RAF Cardington Bedfordshire in England in 1938 - he was asked to design and draw posters for dances and social events and he decided use the caracter Chad on these posters. Later at RAF Farnborough and RAF Little Rissington in 1938/1939 he designed and drew posters which used Chad as a memory aid to remind servicemen and RAF personnel to return tools and equipment from where they came(these posters were somtimes altered to suit the sections in which they were displayed ie: in the aircraft electrical sections one eye was altererd to a - and the other eye to a + to denote negative and positive current)

Later on during the war the character Chad was used to highlight any shortage or shortcomings at the time in England as well as in the major theatres of the second world war. My father first came across Chad whilst serving in the Western Desert at Tobruk. My father always stated that 'Kilroy' was a later adaptation of Chad - depiced mainly by US Forces.

After the war ended Chat drew Chad for a number of weekly newspapers and comics both as a cartoon character and as comic strips with the names 'Chad by Chat' and 'Mr Chad'

My father activly drew Chad for various publications up to the late 1970's when his eyesight began to fail. On my fathers headstone the character Chad has been depiced looking over the wall with the inscription 'Wot,no Chat'.

My fathers estate still holds the original very first Chad cartoon ever drawn by him dated 1937, together with numerious original Chad cartoons drawn by him during his career as a humerious artist.

D R Chatterton.
Trustee of the Estate of George E Chatterton, FIAL, FRSA.

I recently attended the funeral of my Great Uncle, Raymond 'Chad' Chadwick Jones. During the eulogy, his son said that Uncle Ray had claimed to be the original Chad, as when someone, I'm not sure who, had joined together the parts of an electrical circuit which were on a blackboard to make a face, someone else had said, 'well that looks like Chad', and the name stuck. I'm not sure during which dates my Great Uncle served, but it could have been a simialr time as he was 94 when he died earlier this month.

Sandie Smith

Hello Sandie,

Welcome to h2g2.

What a lovely story, such a shame it cannot be verified.

I have left you a message in your Personal Space, just to help you find your way around our site


lil xx