Australian Cartoonists Association › Ronald Charles Vivian

Born Sydney, New South Wales 19 February 1914
Died Warriewood, New South Wales 5 May 1973

By Lindsay Foyle

Ron Vivian was driving home one night when his wife Val realised something was wrong. He was driving with a sense of urgency that was not usual. As soon as he arrived at home, Vivian went straight into the house. He had chest pains and a doctor was called. After examining Vivian, the doctor told him he had suffered a mild heart attack. In the doctor’s view, there was no need to go to the hospital that night, but he would need further check-ups the following day. The doctor left, and the Vivian family retired for the night. Vivian died later that night, it was 5 May 1973.

When the head artist at News Limited Des Condon, heard about Vivian’s death, he came out of his office and announced it to the art department. One of the artists, a good friend of Vivian’s, Alex King just sat at his desk shaking and saying it was not true. It took King a long time to accept what he had been told. All the others were also shocked. There was not one person there who did not consider Vivian a friend.

Ronald Charles Vivian was born in Sydney on 19 February 1914, and spent his early life in the then working-class suburb of Paddington. His mother, Vida (nee Francis), was very proud of the fact that he could draw before he could talk. Not just childish scribble, but drawings that looked like what he was drawing. After the family moved Chatswood where Vivian attended school, and later attended the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, known as the Shore School (or Shore College). When he left school, he wanted to go into the navy, but his father, Charles, wanted him to have something else to fall back on. So, Vivian enrolled at East Sydney Technical College to study art.

When Vivian finished his courses, he went to work with his father in advertising. Unfortunately, neither the job or the agency lasted long. His father was declared bankrupt on November 4, 1936 and the agency closed.

Ron soon got a job at The Daily News (which before 1938 had been The Labor Daily). He worked in the art department, and started drawing a comic strip called Jimmy Gale. It was first published on December 2, 1938. Unfortunately, Jimmy Gale did not last long. The comic was dropped mid-adventure after May 15, 1939. No explanation was offered to readers. The reality was that the paper had been struggling for some time and was not financially viable. It ended up being placed in the hands of a receiver on June 20, 1940 and soon after sold to Consolidated Press.

Frank Packer, who controlled Consolidated Press, assured those working on The Daily News he intended to keep publishing the paper, and their jobs were safe, they were not. Packer closed the paper a month later.

Packer kept Vivian on with a job in The Daily Telegraph art department. He was soon drawing cartoons and illustrations for the paper and The Australian Women’s Weekly. Vivian had not been there long when he started drawing a single panel comic, Winnie the War Winner. It was running in The Australian Women’s Weekly and had originally been drawn by Hottie Lahm, a freelance contributor.

There is an interesting side story attached to Winnie the War Winner. In the Second World War, during the Battle of Timor in 1942, Sparrow Force, fighting as guerrillas in the jungle, lost contact with the rest of the Australian Army. Some thought the Japanese might have captured them. However, they built a radio, from salvaged parts, which they named Winnie the War Winner, after the comic. The radio enabled them to establish contact with Darwin on 20 April 1942. The radio is now in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

When the Second World War started, Vivian was not called up because the Press was protected industry. On January 20, 1942, Vivian joined the Royal Australian Air Force, and served in New Guinea from 1942 to 1944. After returning from New Guinea, the RAAF discovered he was an artist and he was appointed to the Victorian Air Board, where he illustrated for many RAAF magazines.

When the war ended, Sergeant Vivian was discharged from the RAAF on December 11, 1945. For his services to the RAAF, he was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the Pacific Star, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945. The medals were nice, but they did not help him with his Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which he suffered from for the rest of his life.

Soon after returning to civilian life, Vivian was back at Consolidated Press, drawing cartoons for The Daily Telegraph, illustrations for The Australian Women’s Weekly as well as some other publications.

Things changed after Jimmy Bancks died on July 1, 1952, leaving an unfinished Ginger Meggs comic on his desk. But he did not wish Meggs to die too. Packer, who was publishing Ginger Meggs in The Sunday Telegraph, soon came to an agreement with Bancks’ widow Pat, to continue publishing Ginger with a new artist, creating the comic. There was no rush in finding someone, as Bancks had left a backlog of unpublished comics, enough to run for almost a year.

The task of finding to right artist to replace Bancks was handed to Tom Hughes the art director of Consolidated Press. Hughes knew all the artists working in Sydney at the time. Eventually, the job of drawing Ginger Meggs went to Ron Vivian.

Vivian had a special skill which made him right for the job. He could imitate the drawing style of other artists better than any other artist then working in Australia. Vivian was told he could work from home, and as long as he kept the quality of the work up to standard, he would be left alone. Unfortunately, he would not be paid what Bancks had been paid. He would remain a staff artist at ACP, and would be paid at the award rate, just like any other staff artist. And there was one other point. He would not be able to put his name on his work. Ginger Meggs was to have the line ‘Created by Bancks’ on it, and there would be no reference to Ron Vivian.

Vivian’s drawings started to appear in The Sunday Telegraph at Christmas in 1952, and from then on alternated with what remained of Jimmy Bancks’ backlog. By April 1953, the backlog had run out and Vivian took full control. Some years later Vivian said, ‘There is a little bit of Ginger in each of us. Every kid is basically the same. Every boy knows the Tiger Kellys of the world, and every parent is a little bit like Mr and Mrs Meggs.’

In 1954, Vivian drew a series of illustrations for a Ginger Meggs cup, mug and plate Packer was having made in England. There were other commercial involvements too.

There was a COR colouring book and three Little Golden Books. COR was a government-owned petrol company which was sold to BP. Packer owned the Australian rights to the Golden Books and could see the commercial advantage of producing the books. In June 1954, Vivian entered into an agreement with Golden Press to write and illustrate two Ginger Meggs Golden Books a year. They were projected to sell 75,000 copies, and an income of about £650 a year for Vivian. Which was not too shabby. Three books were published, Ginger Meggs and Herbert the Billy Goat, Ginger Meggs and the Country Cousin and Ginger Meggs’ Lucky Break. Others books were promoted which for some reason or another never made it into print. There were also a number of advertisements and one series that involved Ginger Meggs with the launch of ten-pin bowling in Australia.

There were constant cutbacks and economy drives at The Daily Telegraph. In 1961 the art department was reduced by half. Two were not replaced when they resigned and four were retrenched. One of the reasons for this was Packer had to pay for The Bulletin, which he had taken over in 1960. Vivian was lucky, as these cutbacks did not directly affect him. Indirectly, however, they did, because the Ginger Meggs Annual, which had been produced every year for 35 years, was discontinued after the 1959 edition.

Another reason Packer was imposing yet another economy drive, at Channel Nine and Australian Consolidated Press was that he was extending the Castlereagh Street building he had acquired in 1936. He was adding six floors on top while extending it sideways, and adding a new front entrance in Park Street. The extensions were designed by Harry Seidler, and would probably not make it into his list of best work. However, it was an engineering nightmare as production of The Australian Women’s Weekly and The Daily Telegraph had to continue while the rebuilding took place.

In 1967 journalists, artist and photographer in Sydney took industrial action. The strike lasted 16 days. While Vivian worked at home, he was a member of the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA) and he informed Australian Consolidated Press he had little choice but to go on strike too. Not that it had much effect. He was ahead of schedule, and had already sent in enough Ginger Meggs comics to cover the duration of the strike. While new Ginger Meggs strips appeared each week, those running ACP, took the opportunity to stop Vivian’s pay. Some people not understanding what was going on, called Vivian a scab.

In June 1971, Vivian was told that despite all the money he had made Packer and the Bancks family, he could no longer just work on Ginger Meggs. He was told times were tough and he was needed in the office. He was expected to continue to draw Ginger at home three days a week, but was to work in the art department of The Daily Telegraph for two days.

Vivian never had trouble drawing Meggs, but he did find it hard to continually come up with fresh story lines. He was always thinking about what the next story would be. He might be out shopping, or just working in the garden, but when he had an idea, he would immediately stop doing what he was doing and rush off to write down his latest inspiration. That might not be as convenient while working night shift in the art department of The Daily Telegraph.

Ginger turned 50 in 1971 and Vivian knew he had changed in appearance over time, but there had not been a change in outlook or personality. He said, ‘Even though it is 50 years since he was created, every kid is basically the same. I have tried to keep the character of Ginger as near as possible to the concept created by Bancks and this I believe is where the magic lies. Bancks stumbled on the secret of capturing this, fifty years ago and just because clothes and ideas have changed, basics have not.’

Vivian also admitted Ginger was still mysterious in many ways. For a start, he did not even know Ginger’s age. He said he ‘put it down to be anywhere between seven and twelve’ and went on to point out that ‘his first name has never been published’.

In June 1972, Sir Frank Packer suddenly sold The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph to News Limited, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. All the journalists, photographers and artists working on the Telegraphs moved down to the News Limited headquarters in Holt Street, Surry Hills where The Daily Mirror was being produced. It was about two kilometres south of the Packer office.

Vivian adjusted to the new office, and life continued with him working from home and spending two evenings a week in the News Limited art department. The following year, Vivian decided to take long service leave. At work he talked about his coming holidays and how much he was looking forward to them. He said to Alex King, ‘You know Al, this will be my first chance of having a real holiday in 21 years of drawing Ginger Meggs, without having to draw comics six weeks in advance.’ Someone had suggested The Sunday Telegraph would re-run old Ginger Meggs strips while Vivian enjoyed a proper break.

Sadly, Vivian died while on while on leave.

Further Reading