caricaturist, worked in Ballarat.
Born at Ballarat on 30 July 1895, Ted was the only son of Edwin and Florence Cannon. He enrolled at the Ballarat School of Mines Technical Art School in 1912, where he came under the influence of principal and artist H. H. Smith. Canon displayed a talent for industrial design, but it was his black and white work that 'drew’ most attention. His cartoons and caricatures, heavily influenced by Phil May, were of a particularly high standard. During the Ballarat Exhibition of 1913 Ted’s work was singled out for notice and he was awarded First Prize.
After completing his art course Ted was employed as an assistant teacher at the Ballarat Technical Art School, before working as cartoonist with the Ballarat Star newspaper at the end of 1914. In 1915 Ted was awarded the prestigious Victorian Education Department Senior Technical School Scholarship. Only months into his scholarship, Ted volunteered for the AIF. He embarked from Port Melbourne on 23 November 1915 with reinforcements to the 6th Infantry Battalion bound for Egypt.
During the Battle of Pozieres on the Western Front Ted Cannon worked with the Scout Platoon (under the command of Lieutenant Jack Rogers) sketching the enemy’s gun emplacements proved invaluable to the Brigade and brought Ted to the attention of the Australian High Command. On 13 September 1916 Canon was given a special assignment involving being sent out forward of the Old Mill at Verbrandenmolen (in the Ypres Salient) to draw a panorama of the German lines in the area from Hill 60 to The Bluff. Canon was sniped by an enemy machine-gunner and sustained severe abdominal wounds. He was operated on at the 17th Casualty Clearing Station. He died early in the morning of the 14 September 1916. His body was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
As a mark of respect Lieutenant Jack Rogers had the Scouts erect a new Observation Post in the Glide on the summit of The Bluff, which was to be marked on all maps as “Cannon’s Post.”
BFAG has 4 ink and pencil caricatures dated 1915, gift of Vic Greenhalgh 1980.
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- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2011
