Stan Cross

Who was Stan Cross?

Stanley George Cross was born in the United States but was known as an Australian strip and political cartoonist who drew for Smith’s Weekly and The Herald and Weekly Times. Cross is famous for his iconic 1933 “For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” cartoon as well as the Wally and the Major and The Potts cartoon strips.

Cross was the third son born to English-born parents, Theophilus Edwin Cross, builder and architect, and his wife Florence, née Stanbrough, who met in Brisbane, married in Sydney then sought their fortune in the United States. His father hoped to make money there but only found work as a carpenter. Cross was born on 3 December 1888 in Los Angeles, California. The family returned to Australia in 1892 when Stan was four years old and settled in Perth, Western Australia. Cross was a gifted student who attended Perth High School on a scholarship. The University of Adelaide offered him a scholarship but Cross turned it down due to his father's ill-health. He left school at sixteen and joined the State Government Railways Department as a clerical cadet. He studied art for a number of years during the evenings at Perth Technical School. In 1912 at the age of twenty four,he resigned from his job and with the financial assistance of his brother he travelled to London to study at Saint Martin's School of Art, during this time some of his cartoons were accepted by Punch. Before sailing for England he exhibited his paintings and pen-and-ink works twice in Perth, the first with the West Australian Society of Arts at their 1913 Annual Exhibition, and the second in March 1914, with another Perth artist, Michael McKinlay. On returning to Perth he contributed freelance drawings to the Western Mail and The Sunday Times, and whilst working as a railways draftsman in 1918 when he was offered a job by Ernie Brewer of Smith's Weekly at ₤5 a week. Cross accepted the position and moved to Sydney in 1919.