cartoonist, watercolourist, art teacher and heraldic engraver, was born in Auckland. After studying at Elam Art School and working in Auckland as a heraldic engraver he came to Sydney in 1910 [1911 acc. AGNSW records]. He continued his 'bread-and-butter’ job while studying art with Dattilo Rubbo in c.1912. He contributed to the Bulletin from 1911 as a result of being introduced to Percy Lindsay, who also influenced his style. In 1915 he enlisted in the AIF and spent three years on active service in France, sending back sketches from the front and contributing to Aussie. He continued to draw for Aussie, e.g. How She Got the Notion to Shorten Her Skirts, 15 May, 1929, p.35. Most of his Bulletin cartoons seem to be of the 1930s and wartime ’40s, done when he was a part-time teacher at ESTC. Examples include: “You’re still too far from the kerb, Henry” [couple parking a car on a very wide empty country street] 1940; '– “Where’d you get those decorations?” – “Anthony Horderns’, sir”’ 1940; “I want to see someone about changing my son’s number – 131313”, 1942; “Now, lads, I want you to feel as if you was in your own 'ome. Look on me as your mother” (officer to raw recruits) 1942; “Just for a start, Mabel, I’ll clear four or five acres for wheat” (newchum farmer in bush) 1943; “Mister, may I have tomorrow off? Me grandmother’s coming home on leave”, 8 November 1944: see file.
Townshend also painted watercolours. He was vice-president of both the RAS (NSW) and the Australian Watercolour Institute. According to the Bulletin, he spent 'a lot of time in rural parts getting subjects for his water-colour pictures’, although he lived in Dee Why (Renniks) and for many years was on the teaching staff of ESTC. McCulloch states that his landscapes were influenced by John Singer Sargent’s watercolours and by the work of Winslow Homer. He was married to Dorothy Reynolds, a potter. The Bulletin (22 February 1939, 18) stated that he was in his mid-forties and his father was heir-presumptive (after an elder brother) to the Marquess of Townshend, but since the latter was then a healthy twenty-two 'G.K. Townshend’s chances of succession are pretty remote’. He was an AGNSW trustee in 1959-61. He died at Dee Why on 15 September 1969 (acc. obit by Langker); 14 September 1969 acc. Fullagar; or in 1973 (according to NLA de Berg tapes).
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
