William Edwin Pidgeon, known as Bill Pidgeon and 'Wep', (7 January 1909 – 16 February 1981) was an Australian artist, known as an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist, as well as a painter who won the Archibald Prize three times. He was most active as a black-and-white artist in Sydney from the mid-1920s, working as a cartoonist and illustrator for a variety of newspapers. In 1933 Pidgeon was involved in the establishment of The Australian Women's Weekly and was closely involved with the magazine until the late 1940s, his work including the creation of the long-standing comic strip 'In and Out of Society' and producing seventy cover illustrations for the magazine. During World War II he worked as a war correspondent for the parent company, Consolidated Press Ltd. From the 1950s Pigeon focussed on painting and was widely recognised for his skills as a portrait painter.
Biography
Early years
William Edwin Pidgeon was born on 7 January 1909 in Paddington, an inner Sydney suburb, the younger of two sons of Frederick Castledine Pidgeon, a maker of leaded-windows, and his wife Thirza Jessie (née White).Peter Spearritt (2012), William Edwin (Wep) Pidgeon (1909–1981), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 11 September 2025. His father died in 1913 when Bill was aged four years, following which the family moved into his maternal grandfather's home in nearby Gurner Street before later returning to their home in Glenmore Road, Paddington.Peter Pidgeon (Dec. 2020), W. E. Pidgeon: Biography, William Edwin Pidgeon (WEP) website; accessed 11 September 2025.
Bill Pidgeon was schooled at Glenmore Road Public School and later at Darlinghurst Public School. He was awarded a Qualifying Certificate in February 1921. He attended Sydney Technical School from where he was awarded his Leaving Certificate in May 1925. By his teenage years Bill had developed an interest in comic drawing, some early efforts being published in his school magazine in September 1923 (under what became his customary signature 'Wep').
Pidgeon's first job was as an office-boy at the pressed-metal factory of Wunderlich Ltd. in Redfern, where he met William Dobell who was working there as an advertising draughtsman.
Pigeon's formal art training amounted to six months at the J. S. Watkins Art School and two months at Sydney Technical School.
Newspaper artist
In 1925, aged sixteen, Pigeon became a cadet artist with the Evening News newspaper (and its Sunday edition published as the Sunday News). In April 1925 Pidgeon's first cartoon 'A Crossword Tragedy' was published in the Sunday News. From March to November 1926 he was producing multi-panel cartoons ("by Wep") published in the Evening News on about a weekly basis.A Week-end Fishing Venture, Evening News (Sydney), 13 March 1926, page 4.Examples: Going to the Dogs, Evening News (Sydney), 7 April 1926, page 8; As the Years Roll By, Evening News, 17 August 1926, page 8; The Inventors' Season, Evening News, 13 September 1926, page 6. In September 1926 Pidgeon's first comic strip, called 'The Trifling Triplets', was published in the Sunday News and ran for the following nine months.
In September 1927 Pidgeon was hired by editor Eric Baume as an artist for the Daily Guardian and Smith's Weekly, both journals owned by Smith's Newspapers Ltd. He mainly produced illustrations and cartoons for the Guardian, but occasionally his illustrations were published in Smith's Weekly (up until 1931).William Edwin Pidgeon, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 12 September 2025.Examples: Australia's First Citizen, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 18 February 1928, page 9; He Did Wrong By Our Nell, Smith's Weekly, 25 April 1931, page 4.
During the period of June 1927 to November 1929 Pidgeon served in the Citizen Naval Forces, undertaking a total of a week or two of training days throughout the year.Citizen Naval Forces service record:
Pidgeon's drawings illustrated the serialised story by Edgar Wallace titled 'The India-Rubber Men', published in Adelaide's The Advertiser newspaper in February and March 1929.Examples: The India-Rubber Men, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 16 February 1929, page 16; The India-Rubber Men, The Advertiser, 27 February 1929, page 17; The India-Rubber Men, The Advertiser, 13 March 1929, page 12.
During the years of the Great Depression in Australia Pidgeon increasingly turned to freelance work. He provided chapter illustrations for Here's Luck by the humorist Lennie Lower, published by Angus & Robertson in 1930.Lennie Lower (1930), Here's Luck, Sydney: Angus & Robertson Publishers. During 1931 Pidgeon contributed occasional illustrations and cartoons to Sydney's The Referee newspaper.Keeps On the Move, The Referee (Sydney), 11 March 1931, page 12; 'Wep' Surveys the Sporting News of the Week, The Referee, 8 April 1931, page 8; Murrumbidgee T.C. Chairman, The Referee, 12 August 1931, page 12. Together with four other artists he illustrated Trio, a book of poems by Kenneth Slessor, Harley Matthews and Colin Simpson, published in 1931 as a limited edition by Sunnybrook Press. In October 1931 Pidgeon joined the staff of The World, a daily newspaper published by the Australian Workers' Union, but the newspaper had financial problems and ceased publication in November 1932. He then returned to freelance work for a number of different publications.
Pidgeon contributed cartoons to the Sunday edition of The Sun during the period April 1932 to August 1933. From November 1932 a series called 'Film Faces', of Pidgeon's caricatures of film stars, were published.Examples: Film Faces: Clark Gable, The Sun (Sydney), 27 November 1932, page 47; Film Faces: Lewis Stone, The Sun, 1 January 1933, page 24; Film Faces: Tala Birell, The Sun, 12 March 1933, page 20. In February 1933 a multi-panel series 'The Week as Seen By Wep' began to be published.Examples: The Week as Seen By 'Wep', The Sunday Sun (Sydney), 19 February 1933, page 3; The Week as Seen By 'Wep', The Sunday Sun, 7 May 1933, page 3. In May 1933 a full-page drawing by 'Wep' was published on the front page of The Sunday Sun titled 'That Great Barrier Reef'.That Barrier Reef, The Sunday Sun (Sydney), 7 May 1933, page 1. From July 1933 to April 1934 Pidgeon illustrated a comic strip, regularly published in Wireless Weekly, called 'The Progress of Mr. Humperdink'.The Progress of Mr. Humperdink, Wireless Weekly, 7 July 1933, page 20; The Progress of Mr. Humperdink, Wireless Weekly, 27 April 1934 (Vol. 23 no. 17), page 18. He also produced covers for the magazine.Examples: Wireless Weekly, 27 April 1934, page 1; Wireless Weekly, Wireless Weekly, 1 June 1934, page 1..
Pidgeon illustrated Colin Wills' verse collection Rhymes of Sydney, published by Frank Johnson Publications in January 1933.
On 24 August 1933 Pidgeon and Jessie Graham were married at St. Stephen's church.Wep Goes Over the Top, The Sun (Sydney), 27 August 1933, page 28. The couple had one son, born in 1944.
The Australian Women's Weekly
In early 1933, in collaboration with George Warnecke, Pigeon laid out the prototype print mock-up of The Australian Women's Weekly. Warnecke sold the concept to media proprietor Frank Packer who, together with Ted Theodore, launched the weekly magazine in June 1933, initially published by the company Sydney Newspapers Ltd., with Warnecke as editor.
Pigeon's illustrations were featured in various pages of the first issue of The Australian Women's Weekly, published on 10 June 1933. As well as a number of small unsigned illustrations, his cartoons and artwork appeared in a Lennie Lower humour article, an unnamed comic strip (later to become 'In and Out of Society'), a short feature called 'Our Dogs' and an illustration for a serialised story 'The Death Scream'.One Husbent to Another – Don't and Oh look, Ethel has another fur coat and Our Dogs and The Death Scream, The Australian Women's Weekly, 10 June 1933, pages 9, 10, 12, 13.
Pidgeon's unnamed comic strip, published on page 10 of the first issue of the Weekly, continued in subsequent issues. By late July 1933 the comic strip began to be named, with a different title each week (including 'In and Out of Society' in the 22 July issue).In and Out of Society, The Australian Women's Weekly, 22 July 1933, page 10. In the issue of 9 September the title 'In and Out of Society' was used for a second time, but the following week the comic strip was named 'Handing Her the Palm'.In and Out of Society, The Australian Women's Weekly, 9 September 1933, page 10; Handing Her the Palm, The Australian Women's Weekly, 16 September 1933, page 10. From 23 September 1933 Pidgeon's comic strip was named 'In and Out of Society' on a permanent basis and published with larger panels and in a block format (rather than a horizontal sequence).In and Out of Society, The Australian Women's Weekly, 23 September 1933, page 17.William Edwin Pidgeon, Lambiek Comiclopedia website; accessed 12 September 2025. The comic strip 'In and Out of Society' became extremely popular and continued through to the 1970s, later being drawn by other artists. The cartoon style that Pidgeon had developed by then was considered to be original and modern in approach and was influential with subsequent cartoon and comic strip artists. Thematically 'In and Out of Society' represented the emancipated woman, the female character dominating the narrative and with the male, via Pidgeon's gentle humour, being mostly on the receiving end.John Ryan (1979), Panel by Panel: A History of Australian Comics, Stanmore, NSW: Cassell Australia, page 30 ().Vane Lindesay (1979), The Inked-in Image: A Social and Historical Survey of Australian Comic Art, Richmond, Vic.: Hutchinson of Australia ().
In 1936 Pidgeon purchased a pop-top caravan and for six months he and his wife Jess travelled around New South Wales and south-east Queensland, during which Bill attempted "to develop his own style of painting".
In 1937 Pidgeon produced woodcut illustrations for the limited edition publication by Sunnybrook Press of Carboni Raffaello's The Eureka Stockade.Raffaello Carboni, Eurekapedia website; accessed 12 September 2025.
War correspondent
In January 1940 William and Jessie Pidgeon moved to a house in Northwood, a suburb on Sydney's lower North Shore on the Lane Cove River. Pigeon lived there for the remainder of his life.
In December 1940 a volume of cartoons by three artists employed by the Daily Telegraph – George Finey, Will Mahony and Pidgeon – was published. The 48-page collection titled War Cartoons were made of cartoons relating to the war in Europe.80 cartoons on the war, Sunday Telegraph, 1 December 1940, page 3.War Cartoons, Consolidated Press Ltd., 1940.
In the latter years of World War II Pidgeon worked as a correspondent for Consolidated Press Ltd., producing many illustrations for The Australian Women's Weekly and "presenting a counterpoint to the work of the official war artists".William Edwin Pidgeon (1909–1981), war correspondent and artist, Australian War Memorial website; accessed 13 September 2025.'War Correspondent' badge, W. E. Pidgeon, Australian War Correspondent, Australian War Memorial website; accessed 13 September 2025.
In June 1943 Pidgeon applied for accreditation as an official war artist and was advised he was next in line. In July he was sent to Darwin by The Women's Weekly on an assignment for two months to study and record his impressions of daily life in wartime northern Australia, in the wake of the bombing of Darwin in February 1942.