Private Eye magazine held a party on a boat on the River Thames last week, setting off from Westminster Pier promptly at 12.30pm.

How he died

Mr Husband was travelling to a party – held by the satirical magazine – on Wednesday when he had the heart attack, according to his family.

The emergency services were called out, but the cartoonist was not able to be saved.

His son, Paul Husband, shared a tribute to his father on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He captioned the post: ‘It is with a torn apart heart that I must announce the passing of my Dad. The beautiful @tonyhusband1.’

He originally wrote on Facebook: ‘Yesterday my Dad, Tony Husband, passed away as he was on his way to a Private Eye leaving party on a Thames barge. Something that meant a hell of a lot to him.

‘He had a heart attack on Westminster Bridge. It’s somewhat ironic that he somehow managed to survive 30 years of Private Eye parties but the one he didn’t make…

‘I don’t know what more I can say other than he was everything to me and everything want to be. This is the very last cartoon he made. Sent to his mate Nick Newman on the train down cause he thought he would be late.’

Paul also included an image of a black and white sketch of a man waving at a boat in Westminster – the last drawing his father would ever create.

Biography

Born in 1950, Mr Husband also produced cartoons for The Times, Punch, Playboy, The Sunday Express, The Spectator and The Sun – as well as working on the satirical ITV children’s series Round The Bend.

He had worked with Private Eye since 1985.While sharing a drawing of dogs in heaven by Mr Husband, Private Eye wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘RIP cartoonist Tony Husband – prolific, funny and inventive contributor to Private Eye since 1985.’

As is always the case at Private Eye parties, the atmosphere was very merry.

When the editor, Ian Hislop, made a speech, he told us that the only person who hadn’t made it in time was the cartoonist Tony Husband, as his train from Manchester had been delayed.

Everyone groaned and chuckled at one and the same time: we groaned because Tony was so well-liked and chuckled because the British sense of humour always tends to revolve around bad luck.

One of Tony’s cartoon collections is called ‘I Nearly Died Laughing’.

It features on its cover a GP at his desk, dressed in a hazmat suit, saying to a bewildered-looking man: ‘OK, Mr Noble, your results are back.

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‘It was only the following morning that I heard the awful news. Hurrying from Westminster Tube station to Westminster Pier, Tony had suffered a heart attack.

‘It is with a torn apart heart that I must announce the passing of my dad,’ came the sad tweet from his son Paul. Tony was 73.

With his death goes a great talent. Cartoonists will always be expelled to the fringes of the art world because, unlike wealthier, more lauded artists, they refuse to be solemn or pompous.In one of his cartoons, two men are talking in a pub.

‘My wife thinks I’m totally insane,’ says one. ‘She’s right,’ says the other.

‘You don’t have a wife.’

It’s a bleak joke, but also very funny. Had it appeared in a heavy play by Samuel Beckett, it would have been smothered in praise by critics and academics.