Les Dixon

Who was Les Dixon?

Leslie "Les" Dixon, was an Australian cartoonist and commercial artist.

Dixon was born Leslie Charles Brailey in Sydney on 25 July 1910 and adopted by Charles and Lillian Dixon when he was only six months old. He attended primary schools in the Sydney suburbs of Drummoyne and Balmain before moving to Corbargo in 1918 with his family, on a venure of stripping wattle bark, trapping rabbits and share dairy farming. During this time he completed most of his schooling via correspondence from the Plunkett Street School in Sydney. He commenced his formal art training in 1924 when, at age 14, he signed up for an art correspondence course promoted by the Australian painter Harry J. Weston. In 1929 Dixon returned to Sydney working as a blacksmith's striker for six months before joining the Vacuum Oil Company as a truck driver. He continued to take art lessons by correspondence.

In 1931 he married Ella May Laws in South Balmain, New South Wales.

At the age of 28, he was involved in a traffic accident in Erskineville, sustaining a fracture at the base of the skull and dislocating his spine. As a result of his injuries he was forced to leave the oil company.