Obituary: William Rushton

Anthony Hayward's warm obituary of William Rushton [13 December] says that he was a "lifelong Labour Party supporter". I find this slightly odd, writes Michael Meadowcroft, since I recall meeting William Rushton in the very early 1960s when he was the in-house cartoonist on Liberal News, producing a splendid strip cartoon each week, plus other one-off efforts.

Chris Booker was also with Liberal News at the same time and the two of them would delight in rushing the first issues of Private Eye back to Liberal Party HQ. Their increasing absences to produce Private Eye were, I believe, one reason why the party parted company with Willie and Chris.

Willie Rushton's final cartoon strip contained a character in each frame waving semaphore flags, the message of which was a farewell message of two words connected with sex and transport.