Trevor Lloyd’s War

Trevor Lloyd was a New Zealand artist, illustrator and cartoonist who lived from 1863 to 1937.  He was largely self-taught although he might have had some lessons from the artist Louis John Steele.  He started doing sketches and caricatures but soon moved on to oil paintings based on his sketches.

Lloyd first exhibited his work at the Auckland Society of Arts in 1883.  He re-exhibited at the society in 1896, 1898 and 1899.  By the 1900s he had moved to Auckland and was making a living from his art.  He began illustrating stories and articles in the New Zealand Illustrated Magazine and the New Zealand Graphic.  In 1903 he joined the Auckland Weekly News as an illustrator, graphic artist and cartoonist.  From 1904 his cartoons also appeared in Wilson and Horton’s other publication, the New Zealand Herald.  He retired from the Herald and Weekly News in November 1936. The Angela Morton collection, housed at Takapuna Library, holds a collection of original Trevor Lloyd cartoons that were donated to Auckland Libraries.

Most of Lloyd’s work for the Auckland Weekly News was line-and-wash work depicting political and topical issues.  This selection of his work reveals some of his thoughts about the early stages of the First World War.


20 August 1914: ‘Where he goes, we go’.


27 August 1914: Big resistance from little Belgium.


24 September 1914: The British bulldog and the French poodle (that’s what we think of them) come to Belgium’s aid and soon have the mangy German dachshund on the run. In the distance the Russian bear wrings the Austrian eagle’s neck, helped by the Serbian mastiff.


22 October 1914; The Kaiser’s gramophone commands his mangy dachshund to turn and fight the contemptible British bulldog.


17 December 1914: Here are the British and German ideas of using airships at Christmas.  The British Father Christmas drops presents down the chimney, while the Kaiser uses his zeppelin to bomb a cathedral.



But here’s what the Allies really want for Christmas. The British lion and Russian bear prepare to carve up Turkey, with France and the other allies looking on.


22 April 1915: The Russian bear drives another nail into the Austrian eagle’s coffin with the Carpathian offensive.


29 April 1915: Meanwhile on the eastern and western fronts, the Russian bear, British bulldog and French poodle have the German porcupine (the Kaiser) surrounded. The Kaiser’s only hope is his zeppelin air-raid campaign.


6 May 1915: Kaiser Wilhelm is now shown as a polecat voiding his poisonous gases on his enemies when he is surrounded.


Author: Chris Paxton, Sir George Grey Special Collections

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