Don Osmond was born in 1929. In 1946, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton as a reporter. A self-taught cartoonist, Osmond amused himself by drawing cartoons whilst sitting through long court sessions or tedious council meetings. However, in 1955 he began to draw a regular pocket cartoon for the Southern Daily Echo, and also contributed a weekly sports cartoon to the Football Echo.
In 1960 Osmond was crime correspondent for the paper – by then renamed the Southern Evening Echo – and was invited to appear on a BBC programme called Your Verdict, hosted by Ludovic Kennedy. The producer noticed Osmond sketching in his notebook, and invited him to contribute a topical cartoon after the news every night. In 1964 Osmond also took a job as producer for BBC’s news programme South Today, and remained in the post until 1984.
Osmond still drew cartoons for the Echo, signing them “Oz”, and he even returned to work in 1998 a month after suffering a heart attack. Donald Osmond died in Southampton in 1999.
5 uncatalogued originals [DO0001 – 0003, DO0005, DO0006], 1 catalogued original (DO0004) (17/4/1997 – 2/5/1997)