John Goodchild

John Goodchild was born in Southwark, London and emigrated to South Australia with his family in 1913. He started working as a signwriter and then enlisted in the First AIF in 1917 and served with the 9th Field Ambulance. He was injured on the Western Front and while recuperating in hospital he made a series of outstanding sketches for the Army field paper Digger. After the war he was commissioned by the Australian Government to produce a series of thirty-six pen drawings of war graves for the book Where Australians Rest, published in Melbourne 1920 by the Department of Defence and presented to the next-of-kin of Australian servicemen who had died.

Returning to Adelaide, South Australia, Goodchild married fellow artist Doreen Rowley in 1926, the couple returned to London, both studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London for two years. On returning to Adelaide in 1929 they established a studio in Adelaide and John began exhibiting his water colours with the South Australian Society of Arts of which he was a prominent member and its president 1937-1940. He was gazetted to the board of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery in 1938, and served in that capacity for much of the next thirty years. He served as principal of the Adelaide School of Arts and Crafts from 1941 to 1945.

In March 1945 he was commissioned by the Australian War Memorial board as one of South Australia's official war artists; he painted several watercolours of RAAF aircraft in flight. He was present at the signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri on 2 September 1945.

In 1946 he worked for the Adelaide News as staff cartoonist. He produced a series of oil paintings for Elder, Smith & Co. Ltd. depicting landmarks associated with the company’s history.

John was a versatile artist, working in different, mediums and his work was acquired by various institutions within Australasia and internationally. The Australian War Memorial holds more than 170 works by John in its collection.