‘White Knight’, The Bulletin, 17 November 1894

White Knight (17 Nov 1894), p. 14.jpg

Dublin Core

Title

‘White Knight’, The Bulletin, 17 November 1894

Subject

‘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

Description

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.

Creator

Durkin, Tom

Source

The Bulletin

Publisher

The Bulletin

Date

17 November 1894 (p. 14).

Rights

Public Domain

Format

Journal (Microfilm)

Language

English

Still Image Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Journal (Microfilm)