Early years Harold Frederick Neville Gye was born in the Sydney suburb of
Ryde on 22 May 1887, the son of Walter Neville Gye and Priscilla (
née Warr). His father was a builder, originally from London. Later in 1888 Walter Gye took his family to the
Black Range goldfield to the north of
Albury near the Victorian border where he took up land and prospected for gold. Young Harold was educated in the local bush school until the age of twelve. In about 1899 his family moved to Melbourne. While he was employed as a law clerk, Gye began to have his artistic and literary work published, including a
political cartoon accepted for publication by
The Bulletin, featuring the Australian prime minister
George Reid. His illustration, 'Prince's Bridge at Night', was published in the December 1907 edition of
The Native Companion. Later that month the Sydney-based
Bulletin magazine published verse written by Gye, titled 'Mrs. Melba's Motor Car'.
An artistic and literary career In March 1908 it was reported that Hal Gye had abandoned his career as a law clerk pursuing legal studies in favour of drawing and writing professionally. His first acceptance as a freelance artist was a drawing he sold for two shillings and sixpence to Melbourne's weekly
Table Talk magazine.
Vumps (subtitled "Pure Australian Fun") was Australia's first comic book, promoted as a rival to the
English 'boys own' comics. However, the Australian publication did not survive beyond its first issue. In 1909 Gye provided illustrations for a booklet written by
Ambrose Pratt called
The History of Aviation. The publication outlined "the problem of
human flight... from its legendary stage until its successful achievement in the present century". After
Will Dyson left for England in October 1909, Gye was invited to contribute theatrical caricatures from Melbourne to
The Bulletin. Gye's caricatures and political and humorous cartoons continued to be occasionally published in
The Bulletin into the 1920s. Gye contributed writings as well as images and was considered to be "one of The Bulletin's best all-round contributors". In addition to his caricatures and cartoons he had verse published in
The Bulletin, wrote material for the 'Red Page' and leader-page, reported on boxing matches and contributed "a fair amount of writing" for the 'Poverty Point' section of the magazine. In September 1910 Gye was employed as an artist for
The Vanguard, a daily newspaper published by the
Victorian branch of the
Australian Labor Party. At about that time he was also contributing works to other publications (in addition to
The Bulletin), contributing caricatures of politicians to
Melbourne Punch, as well as of sporting people for the
Judge. His cartoons were also published in
The Worker newspaper, published in Wagga Wagga. From about 1912 Gye shared a studio with the cartoonist
David Low in
Collins Street, Melbourne. Low left Australia for England in 1919. Gye was one of four artists who held an exhibition at the Athenaeum Galleries in Melbourne in August 1914. The other artists represented were
Percy Lindsay,
G. Courtney Benson and R. H. Stockfeld. A review of the exhibition commented that Gye "enjoys the somewhat doubtful felicity of being an expert caricaturist" who "handles his pen with a facile and acceptable directness". Gye's contributions included thirty caricatures, as well as "more orthodox" works showing "the possession of a poetic sense". After C. J. Dennis had completed the writing of
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, he chose Hal Gye "to do the quaint illustrations" the author had in mind. They met at Gye's studio and "planned an elaborate 'make-up'" of the book, including the title-page and dust-jacket. The book, published by
Angus & Robertson in Sydney and with a dust-jacket featuring Gye's artwork, was released in October 1915. In 1916 Gye married Alice Gifford, a chorus girl for the
J. C. Williamson theatrical company. The couple were married at
Flemington on 15 November 1916 in the Methodist church. Gye provided illustrations for an anthology of Scottish Border poet and Australian bush balladeer
Will H. Ogilvie, with
The Australian and other verses (1916) frontispiece and
title page. Work was also undertaken for poet and writer
Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson. Gye provided the illustrations for Dennis' book of satirical verse
The Glugs of Gosh, published in 1917. During the period 1915 to 1918 Gye's illustrations were featured in short stories published in the
Weekly Times Annual. In 1918 Gye extended the concept of his popular cupid illustrations from
The Sentimental Bloke. A full-page cartoon called 'Cupid Up to Date' was published in the
Weekly Times Annual, depicting Cupid's courtship and marriage, his war service and eventual wounding and his return to Australia to his wife and newborn son. From May 1919 to about February 1920 sporting-themed cartoons by Hal Gye were published in the Saturday 'Sporting Edition' of Melbourne's
The Herald newspaper. In 1921 a book of Gye's cartoons and caricatures of players and officials of Melbourne's
football clubs was published, titled
Football Fragments. In about June 1923 Gye was appointed chief artist on the staff of the daily afternoon Adelaide newspaper,
The News. In the first issue of
The News, published on 24 July 1923, Gye introduced a cartoon character called 'Mr. Subbubs', described as "Adelaide's Man with a Grievance". Gye's cartoons featuring Mr. Subbubs, an '
everyman' figure, were a regular feature published in
The News from July 1923 until June 1926. By mid-year 1924 the character of Mr. Subbubs had become so popular in Adelaide that his image was "being used to heighten the picturesqueness and appeal of various forms of advertising publicity", prompting
The News to remind readers that the character 'is copyrighted and therefore cannot be utilised in any of these connections without express permission". In December 1925 the
Mr. Subbubs Drawing Book for Kids was published which included "a quaintly humorous account of the schooldays of Mr. Subbubs", as well as instructions and illustrations by Gye on how to draw the face of Mr. Subbubs and an exposition of "the gentle art of caricaturing". The collaborative partnership between Gye and C. J. Dennis ceased after the writer objected to "a direct arrangement between Angus and Robertson and Gye" relating to the illustrations for
Rose of Spadgers. Cartoons by Gye with sports themes were published in Melbourne's
The Sporting Globe newspaper from about November 1932 to September 1933. An exhibition of coloured
monotype prints by Hal Gye opened in late-May 1933 at the Fine Art Society's Gallery in Melbourne. Fifty-five works, which included landscapes and flower studies, were exhibited.
Later years Gye had a serious motor accident in the early 1930s, after which he concentrated on writing. His short stories appeared occasionally in the magazine until June 1939. Gye also had verse published in
The Bulletin during this period under his pseudonym (for example 'Loaming' published in April 1939). In 1954 Gye declared that "writing is a thousand times harder than drawing or painting", adding: "An artist can work without thinking too much sometimes; a writer has to keep on thinking all the time".
Coast to Coast was published biennially from 1949. A short story by 'Hackston' was published in the 1951–52 edition. During the 1940s verse and short stories written by Gye (under his pseudonym 'James Hackston') were published in
The Bulletin (occasionally from 1940 to 1946 and more regularly from 1946 to 1949). His writings continued to be published in the magazine during the 1950s (semi-regularly from 1950 to 1954 and less frequently for the rest of the decade). During the period from August 1949 until the mid-1950s verse by Gye (under the
nom-de-plume of 'Hacko') was also published in
The Bulletin. In 1959, following his attendance at a screening of the documentary film
The Burnie Mill, Gye wrote and illustrated a poem published as
The Sentimental Bloke and the Burnie Mill. In 1963 Gye was invited to unveil the C. J. Dennis memorial plaque at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne. Hal Gye died on 25 November 1967 in the Melbourne suburb of
Beaumaris, aged 80. Gye's autobiography,
The Hole in the Bedroom Floor, was published in 1969, two years after his death. ==Publications==