Samuel Garnet Wells
Samuel Garnet Wells was an Australian cartoonist, caricaturist, artist, and draughtsman. Over a career of almost half a century, he worked at the Williamstown Chronicle, the Melbourne Punch, the Melbourne Herald, The Daily Dispatch, and the Melbourne Age as a political/editorial and sporting artist.
He was also responsible in his Herald cartoon of for suggesting that the Geelong Football Club adopt a black cat as its mascot, and adopt the nickname of "The Cats".
Family
The son of the civil engineer Samuel Smith Wells , and Emmeline Wells, née Little, Samuel Garnet Smith Wells was born in North Sydney, New South Wales, on 2 February 1885.Three marriages
He married Grace Maud Pike, in Manly, New South Wales on 9 April 1907; they were divorced in May 1912.He married Marjorie Elizabeth Egan, at Fitzroy, Victoria on 5 April 1912; on 17 September 1931, Wells was granted his petition for a decree of nullity of this marriage, on the grounds that, although he had believed that his earlier marriage had been terminated in November 1911, he had not, in fact, been free to marry until 19 June 1912.
He married Melbourne Artist Vera Murray, at Caulfield, Victoria, on 9 February 1932. They remained together until his death in 1972.
Education
He was educated at Kiama Grammar School.Artist
Cartoonist
Over a career of almost 50 years, Wells worked for a number of publications in Australia and in the U.K.The ''Williamstown Chronicle''
In 1919, Krefft was commissioned by the Williamstown Chronicle to produce a series of caricatures of eminent local citizens.Forty of these caricatures were published, one each week: the first, that of Frederick Ernest Pincott, the manager of Nugget Polish Co., on 24 May 1919, and the fortieth and final caricature in the series, that of James Lord, manager of the Williamstown Gas Company, on 20 March 1920.
The ''Melbourne Punch''
Having contributed caricatures to the Melbourne Punch during the war, Wells joined its staff after World War I.The Melbourne ''Herald''
He worked at the Melbourne Herald as both a political/editorial cartoonist and as a sporting cartoonist from 1922.20 June 1923
Driven by the popularity of the humorous fictional "letters from the bush", that regularly featured in the Melbourne Herald, written by C. J. Dennis, supposedly written by Ben Bowyang, a philosophical farmer from "Gunn's Gully", Wells, the Herald's resident caricaturist, pretended to have visited Gunn's Gully "Correspondents have frequently asked what Ben Bowyang and Bill Smith are like. This is Wells's impression of them after a visit to Gunns Gully" and, on 20 June 1923, the Herald presented 'caricatures' of the fictional pair, as if they were, indeed, real people.Ten years later, based upon Dennis's columns and Wells's caricatures, Alex Gurney went on to create the characters for his successful comic strip, the first of which was published on 7 October 1933.