Colonel Blimp Colonel Blimp Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character by cartoonist David Low, first drawn for Lord Beaverbrook's London "Evening Standard" in April 1934. Blimp is pompous, irascible, jingoistic, and stereotypically British, identifiable by his walrus moustache and the interjection "Gad, Sir!". Low claimed that he developed the character after overhearing two military men in a Turkish bath declare that cavalry officers should be entitled to wear their spurs inside tanks. The character was named after the barrage balloon, which was known as a blimp. Blimp issues proclamations from the Turkish bath, wrapped in his towel and brandishing some mundane
The Evening News (London newspaper) became one of the leading papers in England under the control of Northcliffe. In 1900 evening newspapers were not considered to be good investments and most of the London newspapers were losing money. At the same time the "Evening News" was making profit of £50,000 a year. The circulation numbers of English newspapers between 1850 and 1930s can only be guessed at. (The newspapers would not publish exact figures except in their advertising, which cannot be trusted.) Some authors have carefully estimated that in 1910 the circulation of the "Evening News" was 300,000. Among the halfpenny evening papers this would