It’s Bank Holiday Weekend, so what better time to try your hand at a bit of fishing… and make use of yet another very obscure licensed item inspired by EAGLE comic? This toy fishing pail, featuring collecting advice from one of Britain’s first wildlife TV presenters, George Cansdale, may be just what you’re looking for!
Back then, of course, attitudes to collecting animals from the wild and bringing them back home were a little different: decimating your local ecosystems is rather frowned on now. But if it’s a rare EAGLE artefact you’re after as a curiosity, this tinplate pail, offered here on eBay, produced by Chad Valley in the 1950s, may be of interest .
Described as in very good condition, with just some age related wear, it has its original handle and the original price ticket showing a price of 1/11d.
Who Was George Cansdale?
Writer and zoologist George Soper Cansdale (29th November 1909 – 24th August 1993), who provided the guide on the “Fishing Pail”, was the Superintendent of the London Zoo until 1953, departing infuriated by the then lack of care for animals there from some keepers. He regularly contributed a regular half-page nature series about various animals to EAGLE until early 1962, working with artists that included Tom Adams George Bowe and Geoffrey William Backhouse, and GIRL, too, his “The World of Animals” feature there drawn by Adams. He also contributed to SWIFT.
He was one of the very first wildlife presenters on British television, first appearing on Picture Page in 1948, and continued to appear on screen into the 1980s.
Older downthetubes readers may remember how he made animals appear almost human on programmes such as Looking at Animals and All about Animals, which won the Royal Television Society’s silver medal in 1952, or his regular appearances on Blue Peter in the 1960s. As well as appearing in the studio, George also acted as compere to outside broadcasts from the London Zoo.
“Children loved him because he was quirky, authoritative and uncondescending,” Blue Peter producer Biddy Baxter commented in her tribute to George on his death in 1993 for The Independent. “Presenters from Valerie Singleton and John Noakes to Sarah Greene, Simon Groom and Peter Duncan admired him as an expert and a true professional. Cansdale was guaranteed to provide riveting viewing. If it crawled, slithered, flew, climbed or swam, he would bring it to the studio.“
Some will certainly remember his appearances at events around the country often accompanied by Percy and Polly, his pet python and bush-baby, in his capacity not only as a zoologist, but as Vice-President of the evangelical Crusaders Union. He spoke frequently at Crusader classes, churches and other Christian groups.
Some of you may even have copies of one of his Ladybird Books, such as British Wild Animals (1958), or Behind the Scenes at a Zoo (1965).
Zoo Man and Inventor
In 1955 George became Technical Director at Sandown Zoo on the Isle of Wight (later, Isle of Wight Zoo, now Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, rebuilt as a sanctuary for big cats and primates), in the former Granite Fort, which was opened by television and radio personality Barbara Kelly on 9th July 1955. The Island Echo recalled last year he had to apologise for a lack of animals when opened, larger animals still in transit. In the 1960s George became Director of Marine Land in Morecambe, Chessington Zoo, and Natureland, in Skegness.
Writing in the 1970s, George noted zoos’ long history and that “the past two decades have seen a world-wide increase in Zoos in response to popular demand,” cautioning “Zoos may foster, incidentally, the misunderstanding known as anthropomorphism, when conditions are judged subjectively, without realising that animals have infinitely differing needs which seldom resemble those of man, or that the word freedom, to be meaningful to man or beast, must be qualified.”
He also developed a method of obtaining clean seawater by filtering it through beach sand, initially because one of his zoo projects required a supply of clean sea water for the seals and sea lions.
This in turn led to using similar techniques in Africa to provide clean drinking water, installing sea water intakes in 100 or more beaches. He established a company, Sea Water Supplies, in 1974, later, SWF Filtration Ltd, with one of his sons, Richard, which won the international IBM Award for Sustainable Development in 1990. After his death, projects it was involved with included Wells For Zoe in Malawi. He wrote several papers on the subject.
Sir David Attenborough, who produced some of his father’s BBC shows at Alexandra Palace, paid tribute to him in 1992, saying that, thanks to Cansdale’s bringing animals to the television studios, “a great many people, young and old, acquired their first insights into taxonomy and comparative anatomy from what he said. He spoke good natural science.”
Head downthetubes for…
• The Independent Obituary: George Cansdale
Biddy Baxter recalls his unswerving commitment to animal welfare and generous charitable nature
• Faith and Thought: Human Understanding of Animals –
A Historical Survey (PDF)
George Cansdale reviews man’s relationship with the
lower creation over the millennia
• ZSL Archives: George Soper Cansdale
• Life and Vincent: George Cansdale
George’s son Richard commented on this article published in 2007, noting many of his father’s achievements and how his legacy providing the means to providing clean water in Africa lived on
• Whirligig TV: George Cansdale
• A new water-filter for developing countries: 1977 paper by George Cansdale (1977)
• Cambridge University Library holds George Cansdale’s photographs of the Gold Coast 1938-1948 (Reference GBR/0115/Y30448K 1938–1948) just over 200 images of ceremonies, military occasions, and more
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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