Fred Ralley (Rali) Cartoonist

	Fred Ralley (Rali) was born in the industrial town of West Bromwich in the heart of England. After leaving school at 14 he embarked on a series of manual jobs, but always wanted to better himself. He trained as a pattern maker in the factories of the Black country and settled down to start a family with his wife June. It was a correspondence art course that turned Fred towards cartooning. His first piece of artwork earned the comment "You do not show much promise as an artist, why not try cartooning." He did! In 1956 he sold his first cartoon and this led to a career spanning 40 years. He rose early in the morning to draw before going to work in the factory, then spent his evenings bent over his favorite drawing board.
In 1972 Fred left his factory work and took up cartooning full time. The next 24 years saw Fred go from strength to strength and earned him the reputation of one of the best 'gag' men around. Indeed several other cartoonists used Fred as a source of material. He had many regular features in the UK and abroad, his most famous being 'Our Kid' which ran in the Birmingham Evening Mail 6 days a week, for 24 years.
	In 1996 Fred succumbed to Emphysema, a lung disease associated with long years working in a smokey environment, but he continued to draw up until the last few days of his life drawing on his own experiences to provide the punch lines. This was the hallmark of Fred's work. It drew inspiration from his own life and lives of those around him and turned his observations into simple, funny gags. He was a prolific cartoonist often producing in excess of 50 cartoons each week, sometimes more! All of his many thousands of original cartoons have come to me , his son who stood and watched him draw for countless hours over the years. Peter Ralley Burton on Trent
Peter has kindly sent us more cartoons and we will update the home page cartoon every week.

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