Cartoonist (?) and architect, was born in Devonshire. He came to Melbourne in August 1842 with his wife, Joanna Apperly, née Meade, and his sister-in-law, Susan. Although not listed as an architect in the Melbourne Directory until 1853, he apparently practiced from his arrival, opening an office in Flinders Street in 1844. His first known designs were executed in 1845, the economic depression having affected the establishment of a viable practice before then. From 1850 until 1864 Gill’s home and office were at 55 Spring Street, Melbourne; then he moved to Wellington Parade, East Melbourne. He was at 18 Collins Street East when he died, on 16 June 1866, aged sixty-nine. The Gills’ Spring Street house became a popular meeting-place for Melbourne’s poets, architects and artists, as was that of their friend Nicholas Chevalier when the Chevaliers arrived in 1855. John Gill had a successful practice, designing numerous houses, churches and commercial buildings, mainly in a Regency Classical style, including the Baptist Church, Collins Street. He was a member of the short-lived Victorian Architects’ Association, and he succeeded J.G. Knight as president of the Victorian Institute of Architects in 1861-65. Any career as a cartoonist was therefore pseudonymous.
The evidence that John Gill and 'Quiz’ of the Melbourne Punch were one and the same is not conclusive, but according to an entry in the diaries of the critic James Smith (who was to edit this comic and satiric magazine for seven years) in the first issues of Melbourne Punch (1855), edited by Frederick Sinnett ( see Sophia Sinnett ), 'nearly all the illustrations were supplied by Mr Gill-not the Bohemian of that name, and were as crude and ineffective as might have been expected from an amateur under those circumstances’ (James Smith, Punch Jubilee 1855-1905 , Melbourne, 1905).
Melbourne Punch 's first full-page cartoon, 'THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE’, signed 'Quiz’, depicts Governor Sir Charles Hotham carrying a cash-box about to depart with his wife for England, while his secretary Major Kaye follows up with eggs from the government farm and a keg of cheap beer, a reference to the mean food and entertainment allegedly offered by the Hothams at Government House. The governor’s cabin trunk is conspicuously labelled 'Not Wanted’. Gill’s friend Nicholas Chevalier was engaged as the major artist from the second issue, but Gill evidently continued to provide a few (unsigned) cartoons. Cartoons by 'Quiz’ include The Line (of Beauty and Grace) [a motley line-up of militia] vol.1 1856 (illus. Fabian, p.38). NLA has neg. of “Dog Registration: INSPECTOR: “That dog registered, marm?”/ ELDERLY LADY: “Registered-no-what does that man mean?”/ INSPECTOR: “Sorry to do it marm, but in that case I must kill him and take his tail to the Police-office.”/ (Sensation). In the background are two “Celestials” who have followed the Inspector on his rounds 'to pick up the game’ – signed “Quiz” and “G” (engraver, presumably Grosse).
Since the tone of Melbourne Punch was pointed, personal and opinionated and as offensive as only a small-town newspaper can be, it is hardly surprising if the architect John Gill, dependent for patronage on the very men it satirised, used a pen-name. Another point that helps substantiate the hypothesis that John Gill was the cartoonist 'Gill’ is that his sister-in-law’s husband, Charles Norton , is known to have been producing cartoons at about this time. The families were extremely close, at one stage living in the same street. Gill designed the Nortons’ house at 1 Spring Street and Norton appears to have taken some of the families’ photographs. An 1856 hand-coloured albumen print (SLV LT) shows John Gill with his niece, Joanna Kate Norton . The Gills had no children.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
