cartoonist and illustrator, was born in Alfredtown, Vic, near Ballarat, second of the six sons of George Dyson and Jane, nee Mayall, both English immigrants. Three of the sons became well known in the Australian arts – writer Edward George (Ted), Ambrose and Bill ( Will Dyson ). There were also five girls, including Jean who married Lionel Lindsay and Ettie. Amb Dyson had no formal art training but picked up the rudiments from the Bulletin’s Melbourne cartoonist Tom Durkin . While still in his teens he drew cartoons for the socialist paper Champion (31 October 1896, ill. Senyard) and for Melbourne Punch , e.g. They May Do As Husbands (woman doctor on men) 8 April 1897 (ill. Fabian, 94). He began to contribute cartoons to the then radical Bulletin from 1898 while employed by the sedate Adelaide weekly Critic (founded 1897), where he was chief cartoonist with J.H. Chinner . In 1899 he moved to Adelaide to become the Critic’s chief artist and remained until 1903. (In 1903 he did an anti-suffrage cartoon for it of Vida Goldstein as a burglar). Having being one of the Bulletin’s most regular contributors, Amb was appointed its Melbourne staff artist to draw the weekly full-page political cartoon in the second half of 1903 during a temporary reshuffle of artists ( Livingston Hopkins – a.k.a Hop – may have been overseas). Amb continued to provide odd gags – they may, however, have been old stock – but brother Bill (Will Dyson) succeeded him as political cartoonist on the Critic (August-December 1904). At this time Amb was already drinking too much – which made him unreliable and a worry to brother Ted – and apparently had also contracted syphilis as a result of a liaison with a barmaid (McMullin, 29).

Bulletin cartoons include: (two men fighting in the bush) Arbitration : 'The Ancient: “Yes, they was a-goin’ to law about it, but I pe’suaded 'em to resort to arbertration”’ 1899 (ill. Rolfe, 87); The 'Abit’ (illustration to a poem about opium with a Caucasian woman and a Chinese man), 14 October 1899, 15; and The Motherland’s Misalliance (Britain married to Japan knocking on White Australia’s door with an umbrella) 1902 (ill. Coleman & Tanner, 191). He is best known for the many larrikin/Push cartoons he did for the Bulletin c.1899-1907. Four are illustrated in Rolfe (158-159): Australian Language : '“Ratty ole bloke that, Jimmy, surges awful if yet shot a few rocks at 'im.” Which, being translated means: “Eccentric person that, James; becomes enraged if stones are thrown at him”’ 1899; In Push Society : 'Maudie: “What does 'a la carte’ mean, Andy?”/ Andy: “Yous girls knows nuthin’. That’s Italyun for yer brings yer own feed in yer own cart”’ 1899; She (with admiration), “Bugs O’Mara always dresses well, don’t he?” 1899?; and The Hero 1898. A late example is A Push Picture (a group photograph being taken), published 18 July 1907. A Bulletin anti-suffrage cartoon apparently published on 29 April 1910 – long after Australian women had the vote – shows a short ugly woman holding up the Act giving her the vote beside a tall beautiful young woman holding up her bouncing baby. (The image was used as the cover of Audrey Oldfield’s Australian Women and the Vote (CUP 1994) and the full cartoon published on p.42.) In fact, Amb Dyson’s views entirely conformed to the Bulletin’s editorial position – against the Boer War and in favour of White Australia, Federation etc. – which doubtless helps explain why he had a cartoon published at least once a month although he was only a staff artist for a few months.

Ambrose Dyson was prepared to assume any political position required of him in order to get published, from the ultra conservative to the ultra radical. In 1906-9 he and Will Dyson both contributed cartoons to the malicious Adelaide Gadfly , which attacked society generally; Amb drew the coloured cover used for its Christmas number on 18 December 1907 – a butterfly woman (ill. Lindesay WWW , 66). He did gags for Table Talk (1907-10) and for Norman Lilley’s Vumps , e.g. boys after apples and an old man shaking his fist at them of 15 August 1908 (original SLNSW ML) where the gag seems to have been added by the editor – as was often the case. With Ruby Lind , Will Dyson, Lionel and Norman Lindsay , he drew for Randolph Bedford’s Clarion (Melbourne), e.g. The Young Idea : 'Millie: “Ain’t she lovely?”/ Mordie (off side): “Pooh, put me in 'er clothes 'n I’d look just as smart as she does”’ (ill. Lindesay WWW , 56, n.d. [c.1907-9]) Later he contributed to the Comic Australian , e.g. The Elevating Influence of Drink . 'Bookandra Jack (to crock that has snapped his bottle of rum): “My word, plurry big head belonga you. S’pose you finer feller as King George, you bin tink it?”’ 9 July 1912, 14. He also drew cartoons for the Sydney Worker . Vane Lindesay calls him an innovator for his comic distortion of figures. McCulloch claims he was the first sports cartoonist on the Melbourne Herald , but this was more likely his namesake son.

Dyson’s ink drawing, Dottyville Lunatic Asylum (NLA), a satire on government-owned railways showing a farmer and station owner in conversation with a lunatic at a railway station among pigs, cattle and sheep, is signed 'Amb Dyson with apologies to Phil May '. Published as a supplement to The Pastoralists’ Review on 15 April 1910, it had ironic personal overtones. After suffering the delusions of the neurosyphilitic (McMullin 105), exacerbated by his drinking, Ambrose Dyson was put in the Insane Asylum at Kew. 'A marriage ceremony was arranged to unite him with Mabel Frazer, presumably to legitimate their son, Edward Ambrose (“Amby”), born in 1908 and later to become another fine Dyson artist; on the certificate Ambrose senior was unable to sign his name, and marked it with a cross’ (McMullin 106). He died on 3 June 1913, aged 37, leaving wife and son penniless.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007