Will Dyson

Will Dyson
Self Portrait [1910]
Born	William Henry Dyson (1880-09-03)3 September 1880 Alfredton, Victoria, Australia
Died	21 January 1938(1938-01-21) (aged 57) Chelsea, London, England
Nationality	Australian
Area(s)	Cartoonist

William "Will" Henry Dyson (3 September 1880 – 21 January 1938) was an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist.

Dyson was born at Alfredton, now in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, the son of George Dyson, then a hawker and later a mining engineer, and his wife Jane, née Mayall. Dyson was educated at state schools at Ballarat and South Melbourne. Will's brother was Edward Dyson who supported the family at this time. An elder brother, Ambrose Dyson (1876 – 3 June 1913) was a vigorous and able popular illustrator,. Will followed in his brother's steps, before he was 21 one of his drawings was accepted by The Bulletin, and he then obtained an appointment on the Adelaide Critic as a black and white artist.

Dyson returned to Melbourne in 1902, and did a good deal of work for The Bulletin, Melbourne Punch, and other papers. In 1906 Fact'ry 'Ands by his brother Edward Dyson was published with over 50 illustrations by him. These are curiously restless and exaggerated, but the best of his work at this period showed that an artist of great originality was gradually finding himself. Dyson was not a natural draughtsman like Phil May, for in his early book illustrations he too often failed to realise the body under the clothes. However, a vein of genuine satire kept showing itself, and it was early realised that there was a mind behind the work. It was no doubt part of the honesty of the artist that when he held a show of his drawings in 1909 they were carefully graded, and some of the least good were priced as low as ten shillings and sixpence.

In 1910 Dyson was married to Ruby Lindsay, a member of the well-known family of artists. They then went to London where Dyson was employed on the Weekly Despatch. He also drew some coloured cartoons for Vanity Fair signed "Emu", and later began to contribute to the labour paper, the Daily Herald. His cartoons became famous and had much influence in establishing the paper. In 1914 he published Cartoons, a selection from his work in its pages. In January 1915 appeared Kultur Cartoons, and later in the year he became an Australian official artist at the front. He was not concerned about finding safe vantage points and was twice wounded in 1917. Exhibitions of his war cartoons were held in London, and in November 1918 he published Australia at War, which contains some of his finest drawings. In March 1919, to his great grief, his wife died. In the following year he published a selection of her work The Drawings of Ruby Lind accompanied by a little volume Poems in Memory of a Wife (dated 1919).