Ralph Sallon was born into a Jewish family in Sierpc, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1899. Fearing Tsarist persecution, the family immigrated to London in 1904, where Sallon attended Hornsey School of Art and St Martin’s School of Art. Becoming one of the leading caricaturists in England he worked for many national newspapers, including, among others, the Jewish Chronicle, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and The Observer.
Cartoonist Ralph Sallon was born Rachmiel David Zelon (Zielun) into a Jewish family in Sierpc, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) on 9 December 1899. When Sallon was four years old the family fled from Tsarist persecution, immigrating to England and settling in the thriving Jewish community in Whitechapel, London, where Sallon attended the Jewish Free School near his home. As a boy, he showed early artistic talent, drawing in chalk on the pavement outside his house in Sclater Street. At the age of 14, he won a scholarship to attend Hornsey School of Art, but as his family could only afford tuition for one term, he was largely self-taught. In order to support his parents, he also worked in a canning factory and as a clerk in a department store. Although blind in one eye, Sallon was conscripted into the British army in 1917, serving with the Pioneer Corps on the Western Front during the First World War, remaining in the army until 1921. In 1922 he moved to Durban, South Africa on a government-assisted free passage for ex-servicemen. There he took his first creative steps as a cartoonist, working for the Natal Mercury. The success of his work prompted him to return to London after two years, and in 1925 he enrolled to study fine art at St Martin’s School of Art. However, he soon realised that his real talent was in caricature and he left the same year to accept a post at Everybody's Weekly as a staff artist, remaining with the magazine for 20 years.
In 1930 Sallon joined the Jewish Chronicle as resident caricaturist (a position he held until 1960) and in 1948 he began his collaboration with the Daily Mirror, working alongside German-Jewish émigré cartoonist Victor ‘Vicky’ Weisz; Sallon drew for the paper for more than 40 years. He also freelanced for the Tatler and Bystander, Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, Daily Mail, Reader's Digest and The Observer. New Zealand born cartoonist David Low admired his work, and kept copies of his caricatures. Although Sallon often used photographs, he preferred to work from life and drew in both colour and black-and-white with a pencil, pen and brush. Among the famous personalities captured in his sketchpad were actress, Tallulah Bankhead; the English writer, G.K. Chesterton, and Joachim von Ribbentrop (Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Nazi regime from 1938-45).
During the Second World War, Sallon served with the Jewish Battalion. Winston Churchill appreciated Sallon’s wicked caricatures of Hitler and other leading Nazis to the point that they were reproduced and dropped over German-occupied Belgium as part of the Allied propaganda war. When Hitler saw the sketches, carrying Sallon's signature, he placed his name on the infamous list of people to be arrested as soon as Britain was defeated. A set of these wartime drawings is now held in the National Art Museum, Antwerp. Sallon’s work was shown alongside that of fellow cartoonists Joss, Ross, Walter Trier, Vicky, Victoria, and Mark Wayner at a Ben Uri exhibition entitled Cartoons and Caricatures in 1950. In 1961 Sallon published a group of coloured lithographic drawings of legal notables for Butterworth and Co. The Shell Mex and BP company commissioned two collections of portraits of motorcycling personalities, with more than 50 drawings for each album. Sallon was honoured with a dinner to mark the 50th anniversary of his membership of the Press Club in 1976; in the same year, he was awarded an MBE. Since 1965 his drawings have decorated the walls of the Wig & Pen Club, of which he was a life member. A member of the British Cartoonists' Association, he was also made the first Master Cartoonist by the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain in 1995. In the same year, a one-man exhibition of his cartoons, Sallon's War, was held in the Cabinet War Rooms in London. He never considered himself retired and was still working into his nineties.
Ralph Sallon died in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England on 29 October 1999. His work is represented in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection, Jewish Museum London and British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent. His drawings can be also found in London's Press Club, Wig and Pen club and the boardroom of Mirror Group Newspapers.
Ralph Sallon in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Ralph Sallon]
Publications related to [Ralph Sallon] in the Ben Uri Library