Victoria, Labuan Island

On his last assignment as war correspondent Wep was sent to Borneo. This painting depicts Victoria Town, Labuan Island. Visible are some damaged buoys and the only two buildings and a clock tower to survive the bombing and shelling of the town leading up the landing of the 24th Brigade and the 2/32 Battalion who captured the town in June 1945. Two soldiers are sitting in the lower right and an army ambulance and jeep are depicted in the centre left. Writing for the Australian Women's Weekly of his travels in Borneo Wep commented ' One can only guess what must have been the beauty of this pre-bombardment Victoria Town on Labuan Island. The fragments of pale blue plastered walls, the heaps of bright red bricks and tiles, the remains of Chinese architectural devices, the broken retaining walls of the canal behind the shops, the gaunt and shattered trees, the only two surviving buildings, the isolated clock tower, an aloof and well proportioned symbol of the town, remain to testify to its one time charm. What is left is just a ghost...' This painting was reproduced in a feature on Borneo and Morotai in 'the Australian Women's Weekly', 3 November 1945. William Edwin Pidgeon (1909-1981) was a painter, cartoonist, illustrator and newspaper critic. Working with Consolidated Press, he was appointed a war correspondent and artist in 1943. He became renowned for his cartoons signed with his initials, 'WEP'. During the Second World War many of his illustrations were published in the 'Australian Women's Weekly' and on the cover of the magazine. His humorous works conveyed the lives, personalities and conditions under which Australian troops served in Darwin, New Guinea and Borneo. During the Second World War he also contributed cartoons to the Army periodical, SALT. After the war he continued to provide illustrations for books during the 1950s, but mainly concentrated on portrait painting. He won the Archibald Prize in 1958, 1961 and again in 1968 for a portrait of fellow artist Lloyd Rees. From 1974-79 he served as the art critic for the 'Sunday Telegraph' newspaper.