Leo Cheney Biography

Leo Cheney (1878-1928) was born in Accrington in 1878, where he attended the local Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk. He was the first pupil to enroll on Percy Bradshaw's cartoon correspondence course, and went on to sell cartoons to publications such as Boy's Own Paper and Bystander. He later became staff cartoonist on the Manchester Evening News.

He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of the most famous 'Striding Man' version of the Johnnie Walker character for John Walker and Sons Whisky. Cheney gradually modified the original rather rakish figure into a 'rounder and more sociable character', and these drawings appeared in advertisements in the Illustrated London News between 1915 and 1919. However, his other illustrations also appeared in popular satirical and humour magazines such as The Passing Show.

Cheney spent the final years of this life in Sussex, where he died in 1928.