Will Dyson
William Henry Dyson (3 September 1880 – 21 January 1938) was an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist. In 1931 he was regarded as 'one of the world's foremost black and white artists', and in 1980, 'Australia's greatest cartoonist'. Personal life. Will Dyson was part of a literary family, with journalist and writer brother Edward 'Ted' Dyson (1865–1931), illustrator brother Ambrose Dyson (1876–1913), and three sisters also of artistic praise. His parents George and Jane came from England. Dyson was a boxer of some note in the 1900s. Artist Norman Lindsay was part of his social and professional  circle and in 1909, Dyson, Lindsay, and Lindsay's illustrator sister Ruby, moved to London. In 1910 he married Ruby. (Will's sister Jean later married Norman and Ruby's brother Lionel.) She died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919. He returned to Australia in 1925, but for the 'mediocrity' of Melbourne, he then went to New York, and then returned London. Dyson died suddenly but peacefully relaxed in an armchair on 21 January 1938, aged only 57 of heart failure. He was survived by their only child, daughter Betty (1911–1956), a noted artistic designer. Works . Before moving from Australia to London, Dyson was a caricaturist for "The Bulletin" and occasionally for Melbourne's "Herald" newspaper, he drew with a 'cruel and biting' style. When he arrived in London Dyson went to work for the local "Daily Herald". This was a left-wing paper edited by Charles Lapworth with Francis Meynell as the production manager. They published Dyson's acidic cartoons. During World War I, Dyson became known for his war cartoons, with a satiric tone. He was commissioned as a lieutenant and sent to the Western Front, the 'mission was to make characteristic drawings of  life in the trenches', making him Australia's first war artist. The frontline experience impacted him, changing his cartooning direction from the militarists to the 'sufferers'. Dyson later engaged in a debate with General Sir John Monash about his drawing of Diggers: English writer H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was part of his professional circle. He returned to Australia from 1925 to 1930, to the about-to-be-sold "Melbourne Punch". He later was the chief cartoonist for the "Daily Herald" in London. Prominence. It was shortly after his wife's death in 1919 that he drew what was to become  one of the most celebrated and widely reproduced of all cartoons, entitled 'Peace and Future Cannon Fodder', and astonishing in its uncanny foresight. Published in the British "Daily Herald" on 17 May 1919 (p.3), it showed David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando and Georges Clemenceau (the Prime Ministers of Britain, Italy and France respectively), together with Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, emerging after a meeting to discuss the Treaty of Versailles. Clemenceau, who was identified by his nickname 'The Tiger' is saying to the others: 'Curious! I seem to hear a child weeping!'. And there, behind a pillar , is a child in tears; labelled '1940 Class'. Legacy. Dyson's friend and colleague Charles Bean suggested that the Australian War Memorial should have a special Dyson gallery, so high was his respect for Dyson's work. In 2016, the Memorial held more than 270 of Dyson's works, but had none of them on display.