George Hermon Gill MBE VD (1895 - 1973)

Born 8 Mar 1895 in London, Middlesex, England

Husband of Esther (Paterson) Gill — married 2 Jun 1923 in Victoria, Australia

Died 27 Feb 1973 at age 77 in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

George Hermon Gill (1895-1973), mariner, journalist, naval officer and war historian, was born on 8 March 1895 at Fulham, London, son of William Hermon Gill, printer's compositor, and his wife Alice, née Clark. Educated in London and at Scarborough, Yorkshire, in April 1910 George went to sea as an apprentice with George Thompson & Co. Ltd's Aberdeen Line. In 1914 he obtained his second-mate's certificate and in December came to Australia in the Themistocles; on her return voyage she carried to Egypt troops of the second contingent of the Australian Imperial Force. Gill served at sea with the Aberdeen Line throughout World War I and rose to second officer; in 1921 he gained his master-mariner's certificate.

RANVR

Emigrating to Melbourne in 1922, he joined the shore staff of the Commonwealth Government Line of Steamers. On 2 June 1923 he married Esther Paterson (1892-1971) with Presbyterian forms at her Middle Park home; they were to remain childless. Gill resigned his post in 1929 and took Esther on a visit to England. Back at Middle Park—where they were to spend the rest of their lives—he turned his hand to freelance journalism, specializing in sea stories and nautical matters. From October 1933 he was employed as a reporter on the Star. With Frederick Howard, in 1934 he won a prize of £250 for the film scenario they based on Howard's novel, The Emigrant. Gill's 'Walter and Hermon' series of 'breathlessly unpunctuated sketches' in the Star, and later the Argus, were popular for their 'well observed, gentle ribbing of middle-class suburbia in the 1930s'.

Sources

• Tom Frame, Gill, George Hermon (1895–1973), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
  published first in hardcopy 1996, accessed online 12 April 2020.
• Esther Paterson Biography:- <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/paterson-esther-10701/>
• George Hermon Gill Biography:- <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gill-george-hermon-10304/>
• George Hermon Gill:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Hermon_Gill
• Guide to the Papers of the Paterson Family https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-234443584/findingaid#nla-obj-286859969