Ian Stuart Gall (1904 - 1981)

Ian Gall is Notable.

Illustrator and cartoonist, Ian Stuart Gall was born on 23rd November 1904 at Wooloowin, Queensland, Australia. He was a son of William John Gall and Louise Wohlgemuth. Ian was educated at the Normal School and at Brisbane Boys’ College, where he was cox of the rowing eight in 1918, senior 100 yards champion in 1920, and captain of the Australian Rules football and swimming teams in 1921. School-time doodling led to art classes at the Brisbane Technical College and he abandoned the idea of dentistry as a career.^[1]

The Brisbane Courier published occasional cartoons by Gall in the 1920s, covering political issues such as the Queensland government surplus (1923) and the strike by members of the Waterside Workers’ Federation of Australia (1928). In October 1924 the enduring `Mr Fourex’ character, thought to be one of Gall’s whimsical inventions, made his first appearance in an advertisement for Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray Co. (Brisbane) Ltd’s XXXX Bitter Ale. Gall spent some time in Melbourne and Sydney drawing for the Bulletin (illustrating the joke page) and Smith’s Weekly. Returning to Brisbane, he illustrated the covers of pictorial supplements for two newspapers.^[1]

He married Agnes Stitt on 23rd September 1932 in St Andrew's Presbyterian Church (now Uniting Church), Brisbane, Queensland.^[2]

Renowned for his wartime depictions, in 1946-48 Gall was chief cartoonist for News of the World, London. He produced a weekly cartoon and, while in Britain with his family, enjoyed his hobbies of hunting and fishing. At the urging of his wife and children he returned to Brisbane and the Courier-Mail in 1948. He retired as the paper’s cartoonist in 1969, but contributed a Saturday strip until 1972.^[1]

After Agnes died in 1971, he married widow, Sydis May Best née Keily, on 8th June 1974 in St Augustine’s Church of England, Hamilton, Queensland.^[1]

Having been confined to a wheelchair for eighteen months following a stroke,^[1] he passed away, aged 76 years, on 25th June 1981 at the Brisbane General Hospital (now Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital), Herston, Queensland.^[3] He was survived by his second wife and his son and daughter.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Anderson, Patricia and Harrison, Jennifer. 'Gall, Ian Stuart (1904–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2007; accessed online 11 Feb 2020
2. ↑ Queensland Marriage Index #B13953/1932
3. ↑ Queensland Death Index #4578/1981