Charles Sidebotham Gould

Charles Sidebotham Gould (also known as Strom Gould), was a cartoonist, illustrator, printmaker, painter and teacher.

Gould was born in Letchworth, England on 2 August 1910. Whilst living in England he studied at St Albans School of Art, St Martins' School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. In 1935 Gould travelled from London to Australia aboard the Ormonde, disembarking at Melbourne on the 14th January 1936. By 1944 he was appointed as the Sydney Morning Herald's first art director; he drew their first comic strip, an untitled gag sequence first published in December 1944. He went on to work as a freelance artist across a wide variety of media. Gould then returned to England for a number of years between 1946 and 1951; upon his return to Australia he took up a teaching role with East Sydney Technical College (now known as the National Art School) until 1968. It was here he met John Coburn, who was also an artist and taught at the same institution. Gould printed Coburn’s lithograph Garden in 1960 and went on to become a founding member and vice president of the Sydney Printmakers from 1962. Due to his reputation as an illustrator and cartoonist, in 1953 Gould was commissioned to paint a series of Australian birds in natural surroundings for a series of twelve dinner menus for the new P&O liner, Arcadia. He also supplied them with a series for luncheon menus: a set of famous London scenes, and a set of amusing sketches of sea shanties. During his career Gould was awarded many prizes in exhibitions, including the Currabubula Art Show for his works The Laird of Cliffdale and Pittwater Southerlies, both landscapes. Strom Gould died at Port Douglas, Queensland, on 31 July 1992.