3 June 2017

A passing reference to our hero was made in one of the famous Giles cartoons , which like Hawke became a staple of the Daily Express for many years . Ronald Giles began work for the Daily and Sunday express in 1943  and continued until1 989, during which time his famous extended “Giles” family of characters became a national institution.  The cartoon which mentions Hawke appeared  on November 14th 1957, and  makes reference to the biggest news story of the day, namely the launching of the first man-made satellite , Sputnik, which the Soviets had successfully put into orbit a month before.  The reference made in the cartoon is to a speaker at the Church assembly meeting on 12th November 1957 in London which Anthony Wedgewood Benn recorded in his diary. He writes that the speaker declared that ”  the Church should send a Sputnik into outer space with a bishop inside it  ”  and that the current generation was more concerned with technology than religion.  The recent publication of  CP Snow’s  “The new men” just three years earlier had made this division of science and humanities  a popular talking point at the time.  Skipper Prossitt