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Leete, Alfred (1882 - 1933)

Alfred Leete original cartoon artwork

Alfred Leete is best known as the artist who drew the image of a pointing Lord Kitchener which was used on the famous First World War recruiting poster, “Your country needs you”. The drawing initially appeared on the cover of London Opinion, a weekly magazine on 5 September 1914. Leete’s first published cartoon had appeared in the Daily Graphic when he was 16. Later, he contributed regularly to a number of magazines, including Punch, the Strand Magazine and Tatler. As a commercial artist he designed numerous posters and advertisements, especially in the 1910s and 1920s, for such brands as Rowntree's, Guinness and Bovril, and his series of advertisements for the Underground Electric Railways Company (the London Underground) are very well known. During the First World War Leete also drew two comics Schmidt the Spy and The Bosch Book, which ridiculed the German army.