The Giles family is a fictional British family created by cartoonist Carl Giles at the end of World War II, appearing first on 5 August 1945. Much of Giles's World War II work had been cartoons featuring Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the typical British Tommy, but he felt the need to expand after the War, hence the family. The format was a single-panel cartoon, published daily in the Daily Express and Sunday Express newspapers from 1945 until 1991. An annual collection was published each Christmas.

Characterisation

The family belongs to the better-off British working class and is usually seen living in a semi-detached house. The scenes in which they are depicted usually comment on a topic headlining the news of the day. The Giles family is patriotic but suspicious of authority. The ages of the family members remained the same throughout the 46-year run of the cartoon series, but their home, their hobbies, and their dress reflected the changing British fashions and standard of living. The Giles family consists of the following:

Cultural legacy

There is a statue of Grandma in Queen Street in Ipswich, England where she stands looking up at the newspaper office window where Carl Giles used to work. Grandma made a cameo appearance in DC Comics' Superman: True Brit and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier. The appearance of Mrs. Henriot-Gulch in the comic Cerebus is closely based on Grandma. In the 1980s the family appeared in television cartoon advertisements for Lyons Quick Brew tea, one of which included Grandma racing around on her motorbike.

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