Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Biography

Cartoonist, caricaturist, songwriter and radio broadcaster, was born in Adelaide. After a brilliant university career in Adelaide, his father became a Far Eastern correspondent on various newspapers but returned to Adelaide after some caustic, witty remarks were reprinted in Tokyo dailies. There he founded University College, of which he was headmaster, then unexpectedly threw up everything and moved to Coff’s Harbour with his wife and five children to manage the British-Australian Timber Mill and its 'couple of hundred’ employers that dominated the settlement. Kerwin spent his childhood there. His eldest brother, Hugh, tally clerk of the B.A.T. Timber Mill at Coff’s Harbour Jetty from the age of 15 (when Kerwin was 'about seven’), served as a lieutenant in France with the AIF, was severely wounded at Bullecourt and awarded the Military Cross in WWI; he also served in WWII. Kerwin, who was left-handed, did drawings, cartoons and (kind, flattering) caricatures that were widely published from the 1920s to the 1960s. He was especially interested in cricket and in 1934, while in England, drew sporting caricatures of the Australian XI touring cricket team for London newspapers and magazines. For this, Florence Taylor claimed, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (he was also proud that 'Three British Kings’ – Edward VIII (the Duke of Windsor), George V and George VI – had 'stood for Kerwin Maegraith to draw them’. His page of caricatures 'Some Sydney Artists’, published in the Sydney Mail on 11 August 1937 (p.32), included Joan Morrison and 25 men connected with that year’s Artists’ Ball identified as: A. Aria , Will Ashton (Director of the NAG NSW), Jim Bancks , Maurice Bramley, Stan Cross (President of the Ball Committee), George Finey , John Frith , Tom Glover , Raynor Hoff ('brilliant sculptor’), Arthur Horner , Lahm , Norman Lindsay , Peter Lindsay, George Little , Brodie Mack ('cartoons sporting celebrities’), Will Mahoney , Arthur Mailey (cricketer and cricket cartoonist), Emile Mercier , Syd Miller , Syd Nicholls , Virgil Reilly , Dan Russell , Jim Russell (Secretary of the Ball Committee), Ted Scorfield ('the man who so happily satirises life’s foibles’) and Frank Whitmore . In old age Maegraith drew murals for the Illawarra Master Builders’ Club at Wollongong, similarly consisting of dozens of black and white caricatures of local members drawn from life. Maegraith wrote the words and lyrics of It Ain’t Cricket , a musical revue performed in Melbourne in 1935 starring Don Bradman. He was also interested in surf lifesaving and flying. He wrote a memoir (an undated recording of him reading from it is at ML OH 37/1-8), a biography of Florence Taylor (a recording of him reading from it, ML OH 37/9-21, c.1969), a short appreciation of George Taylor , the fellow cartoonist who had founded Construction in which Maegraith published most of his cartoons, and a memoir of his family’s early years in Coff’s Harbour entitled 'Timber … We Were The Pioneers’, included in his book of cartoons (pp.51-53). In 1988 the SLNSW acquired his papers (ML MSS 4944) and pictorial material (Pic.Acc.6514) from Peter Maegraith, evidently his son. The ML’s Bulletin collection holds 109 original caricatures by Maegraith of men from South Australia (mainly), WA and Victoria (1924-33 and undated). He also contributed to Beckett’s Budget , e.g. 'MADGE: “Why did you quarrel with Ethel last night?”/ MABEL: “She called me an old scandalmonger.”/ MADGE: “But, my dear, you’re not old!”’ (25 November 1927, 18). He wrote reports of visits to country towns, which he illustrated with caricatures, e.g. Kerwin Maegraith visits Griffith 14 June 1927, 6. ML also has a Sam Hood photocopy of a 1945 caricature of Sammy Lee by 'newspaper artist Kerwin Meagraith’. He drew instant caricatures on TV. His book (p.27), made up of cartoons from Construction , Australasian Engineer and Building , edited by Florence Taylor, includes If Joern Utzon Is Not Long, We Will Wait For The Opera House! – 10 amiable caricature heads of Sydney businessmen in the building industry dominated by a full-length and very, very 'long’ Utzon taking up the length of the page ('Up in the Clouds Joern Utzon hopes they will be getting going pretty quickly on The Opera House’). Writers: Kerr, Joan Date written: 1996 Last updated: 2007

Born

b. 1903

Summary

Mid 20th century Adelaide born, well travelled Sydney based cartoonist, caricaturist, songwriter and radio broadcaster. Maegraith drew instant caricatures on TV.

Gender

Male

Died

1970

Age at death

67