John Leslie Bott was born on 10 August 1899 in Wandsworth, London, was educated at Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He joined the Amalgamated Press in the 1920s, becoming a director and editor. He edited the story Boys Broadcast in 1934-45, and Happy Days, a full colour photogravure comic launched in 1938 to compete with Willbank Publications' Mickey Mouse Weekly. Despite its high production values and high quality art art by Roy Wilson and Fred Robinson, it only lasted 45 issues. He served in the National Fire Service during the Second World War. After the war, aside from his work at the AP, he was a magistrate, Mayor of Sutton and Cheam, ran unsuccessfully for parliament for the Conservative Party in Willesden West in 1950 and 1951, and was awarded the OBE. He stopped working for the AP some time in the 50s, and died in Sutton in the fourth quarter of 1973.
References[]
- Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 23