Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

 

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred were beloved children’s characters whose adventures appeared in newspapers and books in the UK from about 1919 to 1956 and were written by Bertram Lamb, who called himself ‘Uncle Dick’.

They were an orphaned family of animals. Pip, who assumed the father role, was a dog, the 'mother', Squeak, was a penguin. Wilfred was the 'young son' and was a rabbit with very long ears.

As this story from 1923 demonstrates schools played a large part in children’s lives and with that did caning. ‘The great thing about school as Wilfred understands it,’ Uncle Dick writes, ‘is the amount of caning all the children receive. The little rabbit evidently believes in the old-fashioned maxim about sparing the rod and spoiling the child; he is continually whacking his unfortunate pupils!’

As published in the Daily Record (Scotland), 13 April 1923

Picture credit: Generated by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

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