Francis Thomas Dean Carrington (17 November 1843 – 9 October 1918) was an English-born Australian political cartoonist, illustrator and journalist.
Carrington was born in London and emigrated to Australia as a young man. As a cartoonist he was most active from 1867 to 1887 as the principal artist for Melbourne Punch. His featured illustrations were noteworthy as incisive critiques of the protectionist liberal faction of colonial politicians in their campaigns against their establishment opponents, in line with the conservative political stance of the proprietors of Punch. Carrington also contributed illustrations to the monthly magazine, The Australasian Sketcher. In June 1880, he was one of four newspapermen present at the capture of the bushranger Ned Kelly at Glenrowan and his writings and illustrations are a vivid and important record of the associated events. In December 1887, Carrington was engaged by The Argus newspaper as the head of the artistic staff for its illustrated publications, the weekly The Australasian and the monthly Australasian Sketcher. He contributed illustrated articles on a variety of subjects to the Argus stable of publications using several pseudonyms. As photographs began to replace illustrations his contributions were more often written only, increasingly in the field of theatre and art reviews. He remained as head of the pictorial department at The Australasian until his death in October 1918.
Biography
Early years
Francis Thomas Dean Carrington was born on 17 November 1843, in London, the second child of the medical practitioner Dr. George Carrington and his wife Mary Ann (née Green). The family lived in Duke Street, Manchester Square in Marylebone, London.As illustrating the odd twists..., Table Talk (Melbourne), 14 September 1888, page 2.Family history, Ancestry.com.
Carrington was educated at the City of London School and King's College. He studied drawing at the South Kensington School of Art and also spent some time in Lille in France. The celebrated artist and caricaturist, George Cruikshank, was a friend of his father and "took a great interest" in Carrington's studies and gave him "a great deal" of information and advice.Marguerite Mahood (1969), Francis Thomas Dean (Tom) Carrington (1843–1918), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 2 December 2023.
Carrington began his professional career with the publishers Clarke and Co., of Paternoster Row in London, and his first illustration to appear in print was a title-page to one of Thomas Mayne Reid's novels.Death of Mr. T. Carrington, The Argus (Melbourne), 10 October 1918, page 4.
After reading "a sensational story of Australian life", Carrington "turned his thoughts" toward visiting Australia. When his father father died , he set on the plan.
Australia
Carrington emigrated to Australia in 1863, probably aboard the clipper ship Suffolk which arrived at Melbourne on 9 September 1863.Arrival of the Suffolk, Argus (Melbourne), 10 September 1863, page 5.
Soon after his arrival Carrington proceeded to the Wood's Point gold diggings on the Goulburn River, north-east of Melbourne. After only moderate success at finding gold, with intervening "dull periods", Carrington took on other jobs to make a living, becoming "by turns a sawyer, a builder, a surveyor and a sign-board painter". In Australia he became known as 'Thomas' or 'Tom', by which he was known for the remainder of his life. From Wood's Point Carrington followed reports of new gold-rushes in the Victorian high country, at Jericho and Jordan on the Jordan River and further east at Crooked River and the nearby Grant gold-fields.
At Starvation Creek, near Crooked River, Carrington became snowed in for seven days and nearly died of hunger. After exhausting his supply of flour, in desperation he ate the flour bag. After that Carrington determined to kill and eat his dog, "but the animal, with a sagacity which did him credit, read what was passing in his master's mind, and took his departure". After "the hapless gold-seeker" returned to Crooked River in an exhausted state, "he was laid up with ague for a month". When he recovered "Carrington determined to give up his digger's life, and accordingly returned to Melbourne and civilisation".
Carrington's first published work was for the Australian Journal, illustrations which the artist later called his "juvenile artistic atrocities".Popular Pressmen: No. VII. - Tom Carrington, Free Lance (Melbourne), 11 June 1896, page 3.
Melbourne Punch
In 1866, Carrington brought some of his drawings to Jardine Smith, the editor and proprietor of Melbourne Punch, a weekly illustrated magazine of humour and satire. One of the drawings was accepted for publication, beginning the artist's association with the journal of more than twenty years. Carrington's first drawing, 'The Mayor's Fancy Ball', was published in the issue of 13 September 1866.The Mayor's Fancy Ball, Melbourne Punch, 13 September 1866, page 3. His drawings for a series called 'Nursery Rhymes to Suit the Times' commenced on 1 November 1866.Examples include:Nursery Rhymes to Suit the Times: No. 1. – "The Chief", Melbourne Punch, 1 November 1866, page 137; Nursery Rhymes to Suit the Times: No. 3. – "Justice", 15 November 1866, page 153; Nursery Rhymes to Suit the Times: No. 6. – "Customs", 6 December 1866, page 177. Prior to the 1880s, and the advent of photo-engraving techniques, the method commonly used for the reproduction of images in newspapers and magazines was wood engraving, whereby the artist drew on a block of wood which was then given to an engraver to cut recesses which corresponded to the white areas of the image. The raised surface of the wood block could then have ink applied for printing. The quality of the finished image was dependent on the skill of the engraver and the time constraints of print deadlines.Vane Lindesay (1970), The Inked-In Image: A Survey of Australian Comic Art, Melbourne: William Heinemann, pages 3-5.
When Carrington joined the staff of Melbourne Punch the principal cartoonist for the publication was Oswald Rose Campbell, who was mainly responsible for the featured full-page illustrations on page five of the journal.Oswald Rose Campbell, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 5 December 2023.See an example of O. R. Campbell's cartoons: 'Pardonable Vanity', Melbourne Punch, 1 November 1866, page 141. By January 1867, Carrington's cartoons on a variety of subjects were being published in Melbourne Punch.Examples: 'Only Fair' and 'Juvenile Depravity in High Places', Melbourne Punch, 3 January 1867, pages 4 & 8. Campbell left Melbourne Punch in May 1867 after which Carrington took on the responsibility of producing the full-page feature cartoon in each issue, as well as the smaller format cartoons.For example, cartoons in Melbourne Punch, 16 May 1867: 'The "Modus Operandi"', page 153; '"Awkward"', page 156; 'The Parliamentary Arena' (full page), page 157; '"Poor Little Fellow"', page 160. Carrington's feature cartoons for "Melbourne Punch" over a twenty year period, from May 1867 to December 1887, were described as "the long fusillade of pictures that wrought such havoc in the politics of the day".
Thomas Carrington and Dorothea ('Dora') Claussen were married on 11 January 1869 in the inner Melbourne suburb of Emerald Hill.Marriages, The Australasian (Melbourne), 23 January 1869, page 27. The couple had two daughters.
Carrington was an early member of the Yorick Club, a Melbourne gentleman's club formed in 1868 whose members were described as "literary men and artists".A club for literary men..., Advocate (Melbourne), 30 May 1868, page 14. Carrington had his illustrations published in the short-lived Touchstone, published from October 1869 to October 1870.Thomas Carrington, AustLit website, University of Queensland; accessed 3 December 2023.Marguerite Mahood (1973), pages 96-99.
A cartoon by Carrington published in Melbourne Punch in November 1869, titled 'Rogers Rex; Or, The King of the Colonial Islands', was described by the historian Marguerite Mahood as an early satirical work prefiguring Carrington's later reputation as "the acknowledged 'fighting cartoonist' of the next decade".Marguerite Mahood (1973), page 79. The drawing depicts Sir Frederic Rogers, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in the British government since 1860, enthroned as the "King of the Colonial Islands" and described by Mahood as "sitting in stupid somnolence with his crown askew and a fatuous grin". At Rogers' feet sits Lord Granville, the ministerial Secretary of State, writing despatches on behalf of the 'King'.Rogers Rex; or, the King of the Colonial Islands, Melbourne Punch, 11 November 1869, page 5; see also Rogers Rex, page 4. The cartoon and its accompanying verse (on the previous page) signifies "colonial resentment of imperial interference", an emerging grievance that was to become more widespread in the following decade.
In April 1871, Melbourne Punch was purchased by the McKinley brothers.J. Ann Hone (1974), Alexander (Alex) McKinley (1848–1927), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 11 January 2024. The new owners were "staunch conservatives" who instigated a campaign in the pages of their magazine against the protectionist liberal faction that had become dominant in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. With the change in ownership and the overt adoption of an anti-liberal stance by Melbourne Punch, "Carrington's graphic satire burst into full bloom".Marguerite Mahood (1973), page 105.
In 1874, Carrington and James Eville, a writer and occasional editor of Punch, collaborated in adapting and localising a pantomime for performances in Melbourne during the Christmas and New Year pantomime season. The pantomime, which premiered at the Theatre Royal on Boxing Night, 26 December 1874, was originally written by John Strachan and was titled Humpty-Dumpty (Who Sat on the Wall), or, Harlequin King Arthur, His Three Sons, the Princess Roseleaf, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Fairy of the Fern Tree Gully.Humpty-Dumpty (who sat on the wall), Trove website; accessed 5 December 2023.Theatre Royal Pantomime, Weekly Times (Melbourne), 26 December 1874, page 9.
Carrington also occasionally wrote for Melbourne Punch under the pseudonym 'T. C.'. In February and March 1876, a serialised satirical story by Carrington was published entitled 'Never! Never!! Never!!! or, The Pincers of the Wretched Premier', with a character named Gayman Beery (a thinly-disguised Graham Berry, previously the Premier of Victoria with aspirations, at that stage, to another term).The first in the series: The Novelist, Melbourne Punch, 17 February 1876, page 62. The final instalment: The Novelist, Melbourne Punch, 23 March 1876, page 112
Carrington's 'In Memoriam', published on 16 May 1878 referred to the rejection by the Victorian Legislative Council in January 1878 of the government's Appropriation Bill for the payment of salaries of the colony's civil servants.The Crisis and The Country Press on the Crisis, The Age (Melbourne), 11 January 1878, page 3.In Memoriam, Melbourne Punch, 16 May 1878, page 195.
Carrington provided illustrations for the publication of a serialised novel, 'Two Wives' by N. Walter Swan, in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser from 27 December 1879 to 7 February 1880.The first instalment: Our Christmas Story: Two Wives, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 December 1879, pages 1120-1122; the final instalment: Two Wives, 7 February 1880, page 249.