Ian Glanville has always been drawn to art.
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But even as a child who spent much of his spare time drawing, he never thought he’d end up working as a cartoonist and on television for decades, work that would see him awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2018.
“I’m genuinely very, very happy and honoured to receive it,” Mr Glanville said of the honour.
Bendigo born and bred, Mr Glanville first began working in media in the early days of local television station BCV8 in the 1960s.
It was his artistic talents that saw him noticed and employed to create backdrops, but his television legacy was cemented when he created beloved children’s character Strawberry Scarecrow.
“It was new, it was fun, and everyone was excited about doing the right thing,” he said.
After television, he worked at La Trobe University, where he honed his cartooning and caricature skills.
Workmates would ask him to draw caricatures as gifts, and he would produce a calendar each year featuring various staff members.
His cartooning went back even further: he remembers being a fidgety 12-year-old trying to stay still in church by drawing a cartoon of an older parishioner who’d fallen asleep, entertaining others in the congregation.
One day, the then-managing editor of the Bendigo Advertiser, Doug Lockwood, called him up and asked him if he would like do draw a weekly current affairs cartoon.
Over the course of 12 years, Mr Glanville said, he created 753 cartoons for the Advertiser.
His job with the Advertiser ended, but about 12 months later he received a call from the Bendigo Weekly founder Daryl McClure seeking his artistic services.
He said he gets a thrill from turning something out.
“I often walked down the street and people would say ‘Oh gee, I liked that one you did of such and such’, which to a cartoonist is quite a compliment,” Mr Glanville said.
With the Weekly he has produced more than 2000 cartoons, and has no plans to stop any time soon.
“As long as the right hand doesn’t get shaky, I’ll be right,” the 82-year-old said.
Mr Glanville also illustrated a number of children’s books and wrote his own, mostly on the Cornish, his ancestors having hailed from Cornwall.
Two lots of his publications “completely sold out,” he said.
Mr Glanville has also been an active member of the community: he was a committee member and coordinator of the Golden Square Neighbourhood Watch for some 11 years, a member of the Cornish Association of Bendigo and District, and a member of the Cornish Association of Victoria.
To meet more of central Victoria’s 2018 Australia Day Honours List recipients, click here.