Person:John Chinner (2)

Educated at Prince Alfred College. He later served as the school's secretary and as president of the Old Scholar's Association.

At the age of 30, he was appointed to the position of South Australian Manager of the Atlas Life Assurance Company. He was a caricaturist of some note, and was interested in early short wave radio and a field naturalist.

He was known as 'Jack' to his friends, and remained in South Australia all his life. Little is known of his early life, although it is known that the family moved to Parkside in the 1870s. He was a devout Methodist and remained active all his life in the Parkside Methodist Church (now Epworth Uniting Church). He wrote several well known Methodist hymns. He was a Sunday School superintendent for over thirty years.

His favourite sport was bowling, and he was a foundation member of the Sturt Bowling Club, winning several championships as captain of his team, The Ramblers.

He was a member and office holder of the Parkside Literary Society, winning a number of prizes for his short stories.\\

From 1899 to 1902 he was councillor for Fullarton Ward, Unley City Council, and twice was Mayor of Unley (1903-4 and 1910-11).

His drawing ability wasn't recognised until he attended a four year course on life drawing at the Adelaide School of Design. He then went to work for The Lantern. In 1890, he moved to draw for a competing newspaper, Quiz. Unlike The Lantern which used the lithographic stone process to reproduce illustrations, Quiz used the new photo mechanical process. This new technique, which allowed artists to draw normally with pen and ink, let him show his real talent in line work. In mid 1898, John also drew weekly cartoons for The Critic. After 1906 there was a break of nearly seventeen years in which he did very little drawing for the major papers and journals. By this time he was becoming old, and it was considered that his style had become outdated.

John was influenced early by the British cartoonist, Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914). Even their signatures were similar. He drew mainly for the Middle Class, and he was able to shape the views of these people to a large extent.\\

In a rare interview in 1928 ({\itshape The Register}, Oct 28, 1928), Jack discussed his drawing technique and disdain for the use of cameras:

For one thing ... there is often as much character in a man's body as in his face, and that is something a photograph does not give. A photograph is the last thing in the world I like to draw from.

He went on to say:

I much prefer to have a good look at a fellow -- follow him down the street if I can't get him any other way -- and then go away and draw him. I remember once I wanted to draw Archbishop O'Reilly, but when I sent in my card, he sent back a very abrupt No. But providence was kinder than he was, because, very soon afterwards, I happened to be sitting in my office and there he was walking up and down outside the window, and I got him comfortably.

From the Australia Dictionary of Biography Online Edition:

CHINNER, JOHN HENRY (1865-1933), cartoonist and insurance manager, was born on 30 June 1865 at Brighton, Adelaide, son of George William Chinner, company manager, and his wife Mary, nee Edwards. After attending Prince Alfred College, John undertook a course in life-drawing at the Adelaide School of Design under H. P. Gill. Art was, however, a part-time career, and never his main source of income. He worked for some years with an Adelaide insurance agent and broker L. A. Jessop. In 1895 Chinner became manager of the Atlas Assurance Co., where he remained until retiring in 1925. On 11 September 1889 he had married Harriet Agnes Wallace at the Wesleyan church, Parkside, where he was active all his life; they had five children. Chinner wrote several hymns and was a much-liked Sunday School superintendent. A genial, energetic man of average height, he often wore a flower in his buttonhole. He was a member of and office-holder in the Parkside Literary Society, won prizes for his short stories and regularly gave talks on a wide range of topics. From 1899 to 1902 he was a councillor for Fullarton Ward, Unley City Council, and was twice mayor of Unley. His favourite sport was lawn bowls, which he excelled at, representing South Australia several times.\\ Chinner's first paid position as a cartoonist was with the satirical weekly the Lantern in the late 1880s. By 1889 the rival journal Quiz, which became Quiz and the Lantern (1890-1900), had appointed him as its regular cartoonist. Soon his work approached the technical quality and creative standards of the English illustrator John Tenniel, an early influence, and `Hop'. For the next forty years Chinner worked for almost every major newspaper in Adelaide, the Sydney Bulletin and London Punch. At times he was producing one full-page cartoon and up to six caricatures a week for Quiz—no mean feat for a man with other, full-time employment.\\ The 1890s offered him plenty of raw material. With his nimble mind and ability to get to the nub of complicated issues quickly, Chinner provided a gently mocking commentary on South Australian politics. Many of his cartoons presupposed a degree of understanding of the classics, Shakespeare and English history. He drew for, and was of, the middle classes; his cartoons and caricatures were a distillation of middle-class South Australians' view of the world. During his years with Quiz and the Critic he provided weekly caricatures of well-known personalities in regular segments such as `Round the Town' or `Federationists'. In the 1920s he produced a long-running series, `Notable Citizens', in Saturday's Journal, published by the Register. The caricatures provided a marvellous collection of character studies of Adelaide's leaders during the 1890s and 1920s and showed his keen political insight and wit as well as a controlled, meticulous line.\\ Chinner's work also appeared in church and bowling club publications; he illustrated several books, designed invitations for mayoral functions, created personal Christmas and greeting cards, painted water-colour landscapes and designed lead-light windows for Parkside church. He died of a coronary occlusion on 15 December 1933 at Parkside. His wife, two sons and two daughters survived him, inheriting an estate sworn for probate at £12,618. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds an indexed collection of 212 original printer's proofs of Chinner's `Notable Citizens', also available in the South Australian Archives, and Unley Museum has two framed panels of his original caricatures.

Self portrait drawing of John Henry Chinner titled "A Study in Hair" in 1910

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Correspondence with Maurice Stephen Thiem and Dorothy (Davidson).
2. ↑ Robert Thomas Davidson. The Family of Robert and Jemima Davidson, 1850-1977.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 L.J. Edwards. Descendents Chart of Mary EDWARDS.
4. ↑ South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society (SAGHS), in South Austraian Births Registrations 1842 to 1906
   1998.
5. ↑ The Advertiser
   2, 26 November 1902.

   http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4900972

6. ↑ The Advertiser
   4, 12 November 1903.

   http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5018605#pstart919403

7.   Chinner, John Henry (1865 - 1933).

   Rob van den Hoorn, 'Chinner, John Henry (1865 - 1933)',
   Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume,
   Melbourne University Press, 2005, p. 67.
   http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10084b.htm

8. ↑ From The Advertiser newspaper on 26 November 1902:
   
   

   
   MUNICIPALITY OF UNLEY.
   
   ANNUAL ELECTIONS.
   
   On Saturday, November 22, 1902, Nominations as follows were made for election to the Municipal Offices mentioned:
   
   For Mayor -- John Henry Chinner and William Dring.
   

9. ↑ From The Advertiser newspaper on 12 November 1903:
   
   

   
   Executive Council on Wednesday morning appointed the
   following justices of the peace:-John Bickle, Walkerville;
   William Blight, Hindmarsh; George Frederick Blomberry, Port Broughton;
   George Bodey, Glencoe; Joseph Albert Braeden, Oodnadatta;
   {\bf John Henry Chinner, Parkside South}; James Chittleborough, Hindmarsh;
   ...
   

10. ↑ Perhaps this is John's burial date.