Early Life: 1927-48
Gifford was born in Forest Hill, London, the only son of William Gifford, a printer, and Amelia née Hutchings. He grew up in the prosperous South London suburb of Sydenham, but was evacuated during the war to Tonbridge, Kent.
Gifford attended the South London private school Dulwich College (1939–44), and while a pupil there was an avid comic collector and cartoonist. He produced a comic, The Junior, using heated gelatine and hectograph ink, which he sold for 1d around the school, but had published comics art by the time he was 14 (1942).
Gifford befriended Dulwich schoolmate, fellow schoolboy cartoonist and later TV comedian and presenter Bob Monkhouse, who studied in the year below and also had cartoons published while at the school. Gifford and Monkhouse collaborated on comics writing and drawing, a partnership that was to continue for many years in various forms, including as radio scriptwriters. The two toured together as a comedy act in the South East of England in the late 1940s with the West Bees Concert Party, giving charity performances with Monkhouse as the 'straight man'. Gifford continued drawing during national Service in the Royal Air Force (1946-8), in which he served in the clerical position of 'AC1 Clerk/Pay Accounts', and went on to draw the Telestrip cartoon for the London Evening News.
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