‘White Knight’, The Bulletin, 17 November 1894
‘pedigree hunting,’ armor, armour, battle, civic administrator, Edmund Gerald Fitzgibbon 1825-1905, genealogy, Jubilee Peerage, knight, kookaburra, lineage, Melbourne, Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works, Thomas C. Durkin (1853-1902), town clerk, Victorian politics, White Knight of Kerry
In this cartoon from The Bulletin in 1894 a serious-faced Edmund Fitzgibbon, fully-armoured and seated astride a caparisoned Kangaroo instead of a steed, charges off to give battle to an unnamed adversary. On a handy perch (a sign pointing to India), a little kookaburra laughs at his antics. In fact, Fitzgibbon is offering ‘battle’ to those who question his right to refer to himself as the White Knight of Kerry. Like other public figures of this era, Fitzgibbon was determined to add substance to his reputation and public persona through the discovery (or invention) of long-forgotten yet “illustrious antecedents†(Louise D'Arcens, Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, p.24). Fitzgibbon was town clerk, and later chairman of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works. The determination of up-and-coming Australians to improve themselves by heaping-up honours and collecting famous ancestors was also responsible for Hop’s amusing 1887 ‘Australian Jubilee Peerage’ cartoon.
Durkin, Tom
The Bulletin
The Bulletin
17 November 1894 (p. 14).
Public Domain
Journal (Microfilm)
English
‘The Australian Jubilee Peerage: A Detailed Scheme for the Institution of Various Long-Needed Australian Orders of Nobility’, The Bulletin, 25 June 1887
‘pedigree hunting,’ Australian politics, Britain, heraldry, honours, Jubilee, knight, knighthood, Livingston York Hopkins (1846-1927), Melbourne, nobility, peerage, politics, political figures, Queen Victoria, social mobility, Victoria, VIC, White Knight of Kerry
This full-page illustration by the Bulletin’s American-born cartoonist Livingston Hopkins (aka ‘Hop’), pokes fun at some of Australia’s prominent political figures. The 25 June 1887 issue of the Bulletin reviewed Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and Hop’s cartoon “lampooned the jubilee peerages that had been bestowed†on the distant British outpost (Louise D'Arcens, Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, p.21). It seems that Australians from all backgrounds and social milieu desired these honours from the British monarch: a search for long-forgotten (aka ‘illustrious’) forbears was relentlessly pursued by public figures, and the claiming of heraldic devices (if obtainable) was de rigueur. As a result, Burke’s Peerage was forced to devote two volumes in 1891 and 1895 to “Colonial Gentry†(D'Arcens, p.24). Hop’s cartoon offered Bulletin readers a tongue-in-cheek selection of new honours, including ‘The Order of P.G.’ to be “conferred only upon the old and true colonial aristocracy†(Bulletin,p .18). “P.G.†is a reference to “the convict inmates of Pinchgut, the notoriously punitive prison-island in Sydney Cove (better known today as Fort Denison)â€. It also serves as a timely reminder to those with ‘blinkered’ memories “of the decidedly ignoble origins†of many of the Colony’s original European settlers (D’Arcens, p.23).
Livingston Hopkins ('Hop')
The Bulletin
The Bulletin
25 June 1887 (p. 18).
Public Domain
Journal (Microfilm)
‘Melbourniana’, The Bulletin, 23 February 1895
‘pedigree hunting,’ armor, armour, civic administrator, Edmund Gerald Fitzgibbon 1825-1905, genealogy, lineage, knight, medieval ancestry, Melbourne, Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works, Victorian politics, White Knight of Kerry
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is another cheeky comment from <em>Bulletin</em> cartoonist Tom Durkin, directed at the reputedly self-important chairman of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works, E. G. Fitzgibbon. In the cartoon Fitzgibbon is throwing a temper tantrum over the amount of money that should be allocated to the chairman (i.e. himself). The so-called ‘White Knight of Kerry’ is depicted, as Louise D’Arcens suggests, as “a pompous undersized figure, absurd in his full suit of armour” (Louise D'Arcens,<em> Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910, </em> Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, p.24). Additionally, Durkin’s reference to “Councillor Gibbon” implies that FitzGibbon is really plain Edmund Gibbon, and that he has ‘taken on airs and graces’ by adding Fitz (an Anglo-Norman prefix meaning ‘son of’) to bolster his reputation and his claim to medieval ancestry. Fitzgibbon served in his role as chairman of the Board of Works for fourteen years until his death. For more information about him, see Bernard Barrett, 'FitzGibbon, Edmund Gerald (1825–1905)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fitzgibbon-edmund-gerald-3530/text5439" target="_blank">http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fitzgibbon-edmund-gerald-3530/text5439</a>.</span></span></span>
Durkin, Tom
The Bulletin
The Bulletin
23 February 1895, (p. 12).
Public Domain
Journal (microfilm)