Alfred Leete, the son of a farmer, was born in Northampton on 28th August 1882. Educated at Weston-super-Mare Grammar School at fifteen he started work as a printer. In 1905 Punch Magazine accepted one of Leete's drawings. He now decided to become a full-time illustrator and as well as drawing cartoons, Leete also had success designing posters. Leete's famous Lord Kitchener poster design first appeared on the cover of the weekly magazine London Opinion in September, 1914. The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee changed the wording and turned it into a poster. It is probably the world best-known First World War poster and over the years its basic design has been used to sell a wide variety of different goods and services. Leete also provided the illustrations for several books including All the Rumours (1916) and The Bosch Book (1916). Alfred Leete continued to work for Punch Magazine until his death in 1933.
