Return of the Crusader
Cartoon by John Frith
The Sydney Morning Herald, July 1945
Courtesy of the National Library of Australia
Frith also delighted in caricaturing H.V. ‘The Doc’ Evatt, then Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs in the Curtin Labor Government.
“Politicians, more than most, need a strong sense of humour, or, at the very least, an ability to hide their anger when held up to ridicule. The Doc missed on both counts. Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships. The Doc’s face launched thousands of cartoons.
The famous novelist, G.K. Chesterton, once remarked that the sweetest sounding name in the English language is one’s own name. Evatt had no doubts about this. Press-cutting agencies were paid large sums of tax payers money to forward every item in which his name appeared…This was ammunition for the cartoonist…On his return to Australia I cartooned him as a Knight-Errant with sheaves of press-cuttings poking out from every chink in his armour.”
John Frith, c.1975
