Alexander George Gurney (15 March 1902 – 4 December 1955) was an English artist, caricaturist, and cartoonist born at Pasley House, Stoke, Devonport (now Stoke, Plymouth), England,Births: Gurney, ''The Mercury'', (Saturday, 3 May 1902), p1.
/ref> famous for his creation of two famous Australian comic strips: ''

Ben Bowyang ''Ben Bowyang'' was an Australian newspaper comic strip, first published in the ''The Herald (Melbourne), Melbourne Herald'' on Saturday, 7 October 1933, created by the cartoonist Alexander George Gurney, Alex Gurney, that followed the misadventu ...

'', and ''

Bluey and Curley ''Bluey and Curley'' is an Australian newspaper comic strip written by the Australian artist, caricaturist, and cartoonist Alex Gurney. Few original ''Bluey and Curley'' strips are held in public collections, because Gurney often gave the origin ...

''. He was inducted into the Australian Cartoonists Association Hall of Fame in 2014.

Family

The son of William George Gurney (1866–1903), and Alice Birdie Gurney (1872–), née Worbey, who had married in Portsmouth on 29 May 1901, Alexander George Gurney was born on 15 March 1902 at Pasley House, Stoke, Devonport (now Stoke, Plymouth), England. His father and his mother (born in Hobart),Ryan, John ''Panel By Panel'' Cassell Australia 1979 along with Alex settled in

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent (Tasmania), River Derwent, it is the southernmo ...

. Soon after, the ship upon which his father, a steward in the merchant navy, was serving, went missing at sea (off the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

); and his father was presumed dead. On 2 July 1908 his mother (always known as Birdie, rather than Alice) married again, to James William Albert Hursey (1866–1946). Gurney married Junee Grover (1909–1984) on 16 June 1928 at

Christ Church, South Yarra Christ Church, South Yarra is an Anglican church at 683-701 Punt Road, South Yarra in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1856, the congregation form part of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. The parish belongs to the Anglo-Cathol ...

. Junee was the daughter of the journalist Montague "Monty" MacGregor Grover (1870–1943), and Ada Grover (1877–1928), née Goldberg. Alex and Junee Gurney had four children: John (1929–2004), Jennifer Anne (1932–2004), Susan (1937–2003), and Margaret (1943–), the eminent Melbourne artist.

Education

Gurney was educated at Macquarie Street State School, where his prowess with a pencil soon became evident, regaling his classmates with caricatures of their faces perched atop incongruous bodies. Leaving school at age 13, he found employment at an ironmonger's shop, followed by a couple of other jobs, before embarking on an electrical apprenticeship with the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission, in the expectation of becoming an electrical engineer. This entailed taking night classes at Hobart Technical College, but it was not long before his attention was drawn to art classes conducted at the same institution by Lucien Dechaineux (1869–1957).

Artist

Added to his skills as an artist, his capacity for the observation of his fellow humans made him a successful portraitist and caricaturist; by 1918 he was submitting work to The Bulletin,

Melbourne Punch ''Melbourne Punch'' (from 1900, simply titled ''Punch'') was an Australian illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett, and published from August 1855 to December 1925. The magazine was modelled closely on '' Punch'' of Lon ...

and

Smith's Weekly ''Smith's Weekly'' was an Australian tabloid newspaper published from 1919 to 1950. It was an independent weekly published in Sydney, but read all over Australia. History The publication took its name from its founder and chief financer Sir ...

. In 1923, he was awarded first prize at the Kingborough Agricultural Show for "an original pencil drawing". In 1926 he published a book of his caricatures of eminent Tasmanians, ''Tasmanians Today'', the first book of its kind ever published in Tasmania. Also in 1926, he began working for newspapers, briefly in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

for the ''Morning Post'', then freelanced in Sydney until he landed a job with the ''Sunday Times'', then for a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

paper ''The World'', followed by the '' Daily Guardian'', ''

The Sydney Mail ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by J ...

'', then to Adelaide with '' The News'' in 1931. Throughout his lifetime he was renowned for his generous habit of giving the originals of his caricatures, cartoons, and comic strips to anyone who asked.

Cartoons and comic strips

During this time he created several comic series; ''Stiffy and Mo'' (based on the radio comedy starring Nat Phillips and

Roy Rene Roy Rene (pron. ''reen''; born Henry van der Sluys, 15 February 189122 November 1954) was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of th ...

) for ''Beckett's Budget''; and ''The Daggs'' for the ''Sunday Times''. In 1932, he created "Fred, the Football Fan" for the Adelaide Mail. When he moved to the

Melbourne Herald ''The Herald'' was a morning – and later – evening broadsheet newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia, from 3 January 1840 to 5 October 1990. It later merged with its sister morning newspaper ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' to form the ''Her ...

in 1933 (as cartoonist for their Sports pages), he started a series ''

'' (based on the

C J Dennis Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' (1915). Alongside ...

creation, and the earlier caricature by

Samuel Garnet Wells Samuel Garnet Wells (a.k.a. Samuel Garnet Smith-Wells) (2 February 1885 – 12 March 1972) was an Australian cartoonist, caricaturist, artist, and draughtsman. Over a career of almost half a century, he worked at the '' Williamstown Chronicle'' ...

) for that paper. In 1934 he became their feature cartoonist. By 1939, his fame was such that, not only was he endorsing Red Capstan, cork-tipped, "special mild" cigarettes, he was also supplying the advertisement's art-work as well.

Bluey and Curley

In 1939 he created the characters for which he became famous: ''

''. He applied for the copyright registration of "Bluey and Curley" on 16 October 1939; and his application was granted on 9 November 1939 (Australian Copyright No.6921). The strip, about a pair of soldiers, Bluey, the Great War veteran who had re-enlisted, and Curley, the new recruit to the A.I.F. ''Bluey and Curley'' first appeared in the "Picture-News" magazine. It was transferred to ''

The Sun News-Pictorial ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with '' The Herald'' to form the '' Herald-Sun''. ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' was p ...

'' in 1940, from whence it was syndicated throughout Australia,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and Canada. The strip was widely appreciated for the good-humoured way it depicted the Australian "diggers" and their "mateship", as well as for its realistic use of

Australian idiom Australian English is a major variety of the English language spoken throughout Australia. Most of the vocabulary of Australian English is shared with British English, though there are notable differences. The vocabulary of Australia is drawn fr ...

of the day.Panozzo, S., "Gurney, Alexander George (Alex) (1902–1955)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, (1996).
/ref> During the war, he was accredited as a war correspondent, and he visited army camps throughout Australia and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

to ensure authenticity for his strip. While in New Guinea he contracted

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

and was incapacitated for some time. Gurney was in England in June 1946, as part of an Australian Press Syndicate sent specifically to view the

Victory Parade A victory parade is a parade held to celebrate a victory. Numerous military and sport victory parades have been held. Military victory parades Among the most famous parades are the victory parades celebrating the end of the First World War and ...

. As well as sending caricatures of various eminent people involved in that parade back to Australia for distribution through the press, he also used the opportunity to have Bluey and Curley attend the parade, and a number of his Bluey and Curley comic strips reflected that event. Gurney's visit to London, and his version of events, as seen through his Bluey and Curley comic strip, was also historically significant for another reason: it was the first time that a newspaper comic strip had ever been transmitted from England to Australia by radio. The strip lost some of its appeal and readership when the pair returned to "civvy street". After Gurney's sudden death in 1955, the strip was continued by Norman Rice, and then by

Les Dixon Leslie Dixon (1910–2002), was an Australian cartoonist and commercial artist. Biography Dixon was born Leslie Charles Brailey in Sydney on 25 July 1910 and adopted by Charles and Lillian Dixon when he was only six months old. He attended ...

Associations

Gurney was a member of the Returned Sailors' Soldiers' and Airmens Imperial League of Australia (RSS&AILA), now known as ''The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL)'', the Black and White Artists' Club, now known as ''The Australian Cartoonists' Association'', and the

Savage Club The Savage Club, founded in 1857, is a gentlemen's club in London, named after the poet, Richard Savage. The club's logo is of an indigenous North American in a feathered headdress. Members are drawn from the fields of art, drama, law, literat ...

Death

Gurney died suddenly, of heart disease, on 4 December 1955. He had been ill for several months, and had collapsed in his motor car parked outside his residence at 7 Merton Avenue, Elwood. His funeral service, conducted by Rev. Selwyn Ide, at St Stephen's Church of England, Gardenvale, on Tuesday, 6 December 1955, was attended by "more than 500 journalists, artists and friends".

His art

Copyright

Image:Bluey & Curley-(6921-original, 1939c).jpeg, Copyright Application.

Publications

*''Tasmanians Today: Caricatures and Cartoons'' Hobart 1926. *''Stiffy and Mo: Cartoons'', Darlington 1928.
How to Draw for "The Mail", ''Young People's Supplement'', ''The (Adelaide) Mail'', (Saturday, 8 April 1933), p.2.
*''Ben Bowyang'' Herald and Weekly Times 1938. *''Sickness without Sorrow'' (illustrations to stories by 'GP') Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne 1947.The royalties from this book went to the Food For Britain Fund
About Books: Humour, ''The West Australian'', (Saturday, 10 January 1948), p.5Food For Britain Fund Closing "About Christmas", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', (Thursday, 10 August 1950), p.1.
/ref> *''Life with Laughter'' (illustrations to stories by 'GP') Georgian House, Melbourne 1950.

Illustrator

* Dyer, B., ''This'll Slay you! by Bob Dyer; illustrations by Gurney'', Bob Dyer, (Melbourne), 1943.

Footnotes

References

* Gurney, Margaret, ''My Dad: Alex Gurney 1902–1955'', M. Gurney, (Black Rock), 2006. * Gurney, John & Dunstan, Keith, ''Gurney and Bluey and Curley: Alex Gurney and his Greatest Cartoons'', Macmillan, (South Melbourne), 1986.
Riley, Michael, "Alex Gurney — Cartoonist", ''Boyles Football Photos'', (1 January 2015).

Hetherington, J., "Bluey's Creator Was Hobart Student", ''The Mercury'', (Saturday, 28 July 1951), p.4.

Hetherington, J., "He's the Boss of Bluey and Curley", ''The Barrier Miner'', (Thursday, 2 August 1951), p.4.

Hetherington, J., "Now, Meet Their Maker", ''The Sunday Times Magazine'', ''The (Perth) Sunday Times'', (Sunday, 12 August 1951), p.4.

Hetherington, J., "Collins Street Calling", ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 6 December 1955), p.1.

The Cartoonist Wields a Mighty Pen, ''The (Adelaide) Mail'', (Saturday, 28 January 1933), p.13.

Meet Alex Gurney — Creator of Bluey and Curley, ''The Sunday Times Magazine'', ''The (Perth) Sunday Times'', (Sunday, 17 August 1947), p.9.

J.A., "Bluey and Curley" Creator in Perth, ''The Sunday Times Magazine'', ''The (Perth) Sunday Times'', (Sunday, 15 May 1949), p.15.

* ttp://nishi.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-82/t1-g-t6.html Lindesay, Vane, "Alex Gurney: Creator of Bluey and Curley", ''The La Trobe Journal'', No 82, (Spring 2008), pp.59–65.
Stanley, P, "Remembering the war in New Guinea, The real Bluey and Curley: Australian images and idioms in the island campaigns", Symposium Paper, Australia-Japan Research Project, 2000.

Famous Strip Creator Dead, ''The Age'', (Monday, 5 December), p.3.

Death Notices: Gurney, Alexander George, ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 6 December), p.14.

Funeral Notices: Gurney, Alexander George, ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 6 December), p.14.

* McCarter, Jim, "Historic Drawing Board", p. 6 in McCarter, J., ''Australian Curiosities: The Rare, Strange and Interesting (Robertson & Mullens' National Handbook No.15)'', Robertson & Mullens Ltd, (Melbourne), 1934. * Kendig, D., "Alex Gurney", ''The Funnies Paper'', (November/December 2000), pp. 24–26. * Gurney, Alex (1902–55), p. 334 in Wilde, H.W., Hooton, J.W. & Andrews, B.G., ''Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Second Revised Edition)'', Oxford University Press, (Melbourne), 1994.

External links

Alex Gurney - Cartoonist, ''Boyles Football Photos''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Alexander George Australian comics writers Australian comic strip cartoonists Australian comics artists Australian caricaturists Australian sports cartoonists Australian humorists 1902 births 1955 deaths Artists from Hobart Artists from Victoria (state) War correspondents of World War II The Herald (Melbourne) people British emigrants to Australia