MAINWARING, Geoffrey Richard (1912-2000)
Geoffrey Richard Mainwaring created the portrait in oils of C Norman Morrison, Principal of the Geelong College, which hangs in Norman Morrison Memorial Hall.
Geoffrey Mainwaring was born at Magill, Adelaide, South Australia on 29 October 1912. He studied at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts then taught art at Thebarton Technical School from 1928 to 1936.
During World War II, he enlisted (No. SX13471) with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in June 1941. Five months later he transferred to the Engineers as a Sergeant-Instructor, specialising in demolitions. In 1942, he went to New Guinea as an Australian army artist on probation. After a brief return to Australia he went once more to New Guinea and served in various places there until the end of the war. In May 1946, he travelled to England on HMAS Shropshire to record victory parade scenes. Mainwaring was discharged from the Army as a lieutenant on 27 May 1947 though he continued painting war material as a civilian artist until March 1948.
In 1949, he accepted an appointment as Head of the Art School at the Ballarat School of Mines (now the University of Ballarat). He continued to paint commissioned portraits for the Australian War Memorial until the late 1950s. The Australian War Memorial currently holds 392 works by him.
He died at Ballarat 13 April 2000.
Sources: Australian War Memorial.