Caricatures of local identities

Caricatures were popular in historical newspapers and magazines. Often accompanied by a caption or verse, they provided insights into the subject’s appearance, character, background and interests (warts and all).

Artists regularly targeted high-profile figures from all walks of life, including those associated with the famous Mount Morgan gold mine. Fred Morgan (left) and Walter Hall (right) were prime candidates.

Fred Morgan

Originally from Bathurst, New South Wales, prospector and publican, Frederick Augustus (‘Fred’) Morgan (1837-1894), wrote the following letter dated 5 August 1882 to Rockhampton bank manager, Thomas Skarratt Hall (1836-1903):

‘… Sir, I have consulted my [two] brothers re forming Mount Morgan Reef in the Crocodile district into a company. We have agreed that if the sum of £1200 twelve hundred pounds capital be subscribed amongst your friends to place machinery on the ground and erect a shoot for carrying the stone from the hill to convenient cartage, we will transfer one half the ground to said parties so subscribing, the whole to be in (16) sixteen shares, Morgan Bros to hold (8) eight shares amongst them and subscribers (8) eight shares … I will not say anything further respecting the reef, but take any number of gentlemen and show them the whole thing and they can judge for themselves and if they don’t wish to go into the reef there will be no harm done. This offer will be open till Friday, 11th August, 1882, to be accepted or rejected … Yours truly, F. Morgan for Morgan Brothers’. (Transcribed by this author from a copy of Fred Morgan’s original handwritten letter displayed at the heritage-listed General Office Building, Mount Morgan mine site).

Thomas Skarratt Hall and two other Rockhampton gentlemen, William Knox D’Arcy (1849-1917) (solicitor) and William Pattison (1830-1896) (butcher and grazier), took up the Morgan Brothers’ offer of a

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Mount Morgan in Pictures from Page 14 half share in the gold mine within the narrow window of less than a week. Thus, the Mount Morgan [gold mining] Syndicate was formed with six members in 1882, forerunner of the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company Limited.

The caricature of Fred Morgan (left) was published in Sydney’s Smith’s Weekly in 1923, nearly thirty years after his death. Fred looks determined and ambitious, traits which would have propelled him to write the above 1882 letter. The caption to the caricature (not shown) aptly and succinctly reads: ‘Fred. Morgan (Pioneer of Mt. Morgan)’.

The artist initialled his work, ‘S+’: ‘S’ for Stan and ‘+’ for Cross. American-born Stanley George Cross (18881977), was one of Australia’s leading illustrators and cartoonists. Readers may be familiar with his work, such as the long-running comic strip, The Potts (Caricature by Stan Cross from ‘Terraces of Treasure’, Smith’s Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919-1950), 15 September 1923 / National Library of Australia).

Walter Hall

Walter Russell Hall (1831-1911) was a successful Sydney-based businessman from England. He made a lot of money in his early years from the coaching business, Cobb and Co. – money, which enabled him to invest in the Mount Morgan mine in 1884 through his younger brother and bank manager, Thomas Skarratt Hall. He remained an investor in the mine until his death in 1911.

Walter’s caricature (right) appeared in a horse racing and sporting newspaper, Sydney Sportsman, in 1905. The Sydney caricaturist, ‘Dick Tait’ (Richard Goldsborough Tait) (1863-1911), depicts Walter as a portly, bespectacled gentleman of advanced years in a three-piece suit and top hat, puffing on a cigar handsfree and holding an umbrella – probably at the Sydney races. Walter was a member of the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) for sixty years. His interest in horse racing stemmed from his days with Cobb & Co. He owned many winners, including the colt, Reviver, which won the Champagne Stakes at Randwick (Sydney) in 1899.

The accompanying verse reads: ‘Though Walter now goes very slow, He didn’t in the old dark ages. The roaring days when Cobb and Co. Coined money with their famed fast stages’.

(Caricature and caption by Dick Tait, ‘Walter Hall’, Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW: 1900-1954), 26 April 1905 / National Library of Australia).

Next issue: more caricatures.

This author has made best efforts to provide accurate information for this publication of ‘Mount Morgan in Pictures’.