Three days short of his 100th birthday,Tony Rafty ,seen above with his late wife,Shirley,and two of their five children , died on Friday. An insight into his adventurous life , with added material, is provided in the following article by Peter Simon which appeared in Little Darwin .
BLOTCHY ARTIST IMPRESSED WARTIME DARWIN
An infantryman sent to Darwin from
Sydney in WWll soon found himself
in hospital
with unsightly
blotches on his
body that would
not go away . He
suspected the tasteless
porridge
dished up each morning was responsible
for him appearing
to be covered
in camouflage. A
nurse suggested he
had an allergic reaction to some chemical
in his uniform material .
While in hospital he entertained patients and staff with rapid sketches
which were displayed about
the place.
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Wartime cartoon by Rafty for Jungle Warfare covering the rail trip to Alice Springs.
|
The subject of one of those drawings was a man who looked after a
water tank into
which potato peelings were thrown
to
make jungle juice .
A
visiting officer
inspecting conditions in Darwin saw the drawings ,
declared the person
responsible a better artist than soldier , and arranged
for him to be sent back south
.
So , after less than five months in Darwin, another
exciting chapter began in
the action - packed life of Tony Rafty, nifty golfer , newspaper illustrator , war artist and
correspondent, acclaimed
caricaturist , Sydney
journalist club
stalwart and contemporary of former Northern
Territory News editor , the late Jim
Bowditch.
Of Greek descent – surname Raftopoulos- Rafty , born Sydney l915, had been
interested in art
, drawing and woodwork at school and earned
money as a
caddy . His golfing
prowess was such
that at 17 he was off scratch .
During the Depression he
often caddied for the architect who designed
the Commonwealth Bank building in Martin Place , Sydney. The
architect played golf
with several cartoonist ,
including Jimmy Bancks
who drew the
famous Ginger Meggs
comic strip
. Rafty told the
cartoonists he was
as good an artist
as they. As
a result of his
boast ,
he was asked
to submit some
of his work
to The Bulletin magazine . When one was
published he was “ on
top of the
world ”.
His
involvement with golf
was such that he
organised higher pay for
caddies and helped plan
a
state competition for them . In
l935 he hitchhiked to Adelaide
and caddied for Sam Richardson , giving
him winning advice in a semi final
game at the
Australian PGA championship . Richardson’s opponent , an aggressive
professional , was so
annoyed
by his defeat
that at one stage
it looked as if he was
going to dong Rafty
with a club.
Rafty
obtained a job for
a
year
as an illustrator
on the sporting
newspaper The Referee, but it closed on the whim of its irascible owner,
Ezra Norton. Out of work , Rafty went
back caddying until he landed a job as a creative
artist on The Sun newspaper in
Sydney .
Rafty’s younger
brother, Stanley , dux of Sydney Boys’
High School, joined up soon after the outbreak of
war , was captured by the Japanese and sent to
Singapore . Tony , who had
been in the CMF, went into
camp at Liverpool, near Sydney , where he met an Aboriginal,
“Darky ”
Barnes , a good boxer, who arranged
Rafty’s
first ride of
a motorbike, a Harley Davidson . That unnerving
experience convinced Rafty he never wanted to ride
a motorcycle
again.
The two of them were posted to Darwin and eventually went different ways .
Barnes trained as a commando
and itched
to mix it with
the
Japanese . Rafty caught up with
Barnes in a war
zone and , with the aid
of a
“looted camera” , passed him off as
a cameraman . This stunt led to Barnes
taking up photography
because he became a
Sydney street
photographer in civilian life .
From
wartime Darwin ,
Rafty was sent to the
Australian Military History Unit, St Kilda ,
Melbourne, where he became
a war artist,
designed jackets for the Army
and
Air Force
journals , and contributed
to the propaganda effort .
Posted to New Guinea by a
“Pitt Street commando ”, he was
sent on patrol from Port
Moresby with a small party
which included artist Sergeant
William Dargie, later knighted
, winner of eight Archibald
Prizes for portraiture.
Told
not to
speak and make as
little noise
as possible, Rafty became
concerned when he
noticed foliage moving. He tapped
Dargie on the shoulder
and , whispering, asked him
what he thought was making the
jungle
move. It was an ambush
. Bullets were
soon flying thick and
fast. As Rafty said,
it was no good
grabbing the sketchbook
so , despite it
being customary for
artists and correspondents not
to engage in combat
, he opened up with an
Owen gun . Rafty accounted for
eight of the enemy and Dargie , three.
A member of the party was
wounded and he
was carried back to base
on an improvised stretcher.
From that close brush
with death , Dargie did
a
painting entitled something like,Saving a
man’s life, and it is now in the Australian War Memorial collection . In another New Guinea
incident , Rafty and others came across
an abandoned Japanese
camp behind enemy lines
. An American
PT
boat came up and the crew
demanded to know
who they were and what they were
doing . When they informed the
Americans it was an
abandoned enemy camp , the Yanks rushed about looking for
souvenirs. One grabbed a
sword. Then they discovered the place was
extensively booby - trapped ; they
were lucky not to
have been blown up .
 |
Booby trap Rafty cartoon in Khaki and Green
|
Rafty
was present
when
General Blamey took the
surrender of the
Japanese on
Borneo. He recalled that war artist
Donald Friend had somehow fired a
revolver during the surrender
which was a
stupid thing to
do because everybody was tense and it could
have sparked off
widespread shooting. Eager to find his
missing brother
, Rafty flew into
Singapore in a commandeered
Japanese plane followed by another
Japanese plane. In the
uncertainty around
at that
time , it is a wonder they were
not shot down.
His brother had been a prisoner
in
the Changi village , a
huge area , where prisoners
were kept. Rafty
insists that it was
the village,
not the
prison where most of
the
POWs were herded
. He was told his
brother
had attempted to escape
with two other prisoners but
they had been
betrayed . The Japanese had
shot dead the two men
with his
brother .
Savagely
beaten , Stanley was thrown
back into the camp. Later
, he
was put in the Rakuyo Maru bound for Japan to
work in coal
mines . However , the vessel was
torpedoed by a US
submarine . The submarine
surfaced and after
91 survivors were
taken aboard the captain
said he could take no more
because he felt
they were a sitting duck in
the
event of a Japanese
attack. Rafty subsequently
learned from two of the submarine
crew they could have rescued
more . His brother
was , in all probability, one of those left behind to perish .
In a
strange twist of fate ,
Rafty came across
men rescued by
the submarine in
Penang and
included drawings of them in his
report which brought
welcome news
to anxious relatives . One thankful
ex –POW wrote
a message across
a sketch of
himself : The best Christmas my mother
ever had . While
in Singapore Rafty
stayed at Raffles Hotel ,
witnessed the surrender of the Japanese
and sketched
Lord Louis Mountbatten
and many
emaciated POWs .
Rafty
has vivid memories
of the fierce fighting that took place in the Dutch East
Indies which saw the
rise of President Soekarno
as leader of the Indonesian
republic. Sent to cover the Indonesian
war of liberation
, he was in a plane with Soekarno , a Dutch
captain posing as an
Australian soldier , and some commandoes.
The plane was shot at
as it came
in to land and
bullet holes were found in
the fuselage . When Soekarno bounded
from
the plane to
calm the large , armed
, flag- waving crowd , there was a mighty roar : Merdeka ! Merdeka! - Freedom !
Fortunately , Soekarno had taken a
liking to Rafty because of
his rapid artistic skill
. He ordered
Rafty
to get into a truck
with him and they drove through
three armed checkpoints . When Rafty inquired
about the army captain who had
been
on the plane , he was informed he had been shot because he was a Dutch spy.
Soekarno took Rafty
to
a village and introduced
him to a self taught artist , Affandi. Affandi
gave
him six paintings
and Tony responded
by handing over a bag of Japanese
Dutch guilders which
he had “souvenired ” . Affandi
became Indonesia’s leading
national
artist
. A Rafty pen
and ink drawing of Affandi is now in the
National Library of Australia , Canberra . Other
wartime sketches are in
the Imperial War Museum , London.
Rafty
found himself in the thick
of fighting when British brigadier, A. W. Mallaby , attempting to negotiate a
ceasefire between the British
and Indonesians ,
was shot dead on
October 30, l945 at
Surabaya . Seven Australian correspondents were
trapped in an hotel by Indonesian rebels and a British war artist
shot dead . Rafty informed
Soekarno of the situation and he
ordered a ceasefire.
Rafty then negotiated the
release of two
correspondents to break the news that Mallaby had
been killed. The British navy steamed in
from Singapore and bombarded the area , killing many people.
Rafty, perched atop
a high tower,
watched and sketched
the action . Later he was informed the warships had
been using the tower to line
up
their attack. [At the age of 95, Rafty was invited back to Surabaya as a special guest to a ceremony and display commemorating the struggle for independence .] After covering the war for five months
, Rafty returned to The Sun
newspaper.
In l946 he
reached
the third round of the
Australian Amateur golf title
at Royal Sydney and was beaten
by the state champion ,
Kep Enderby . Enderby
went on to
become the Australian
Attorney–General, a Minister
for the Northern Territory , a
judge and , like
Fidel Castro, supporter of the
international language Esperanto.
Of particular Territory interest
is the fact
that Enderby
also favours euthanasia
.
During
his reign , President
Soekarno amassed a
large collection of spectacular
paintings, mainly Indonesian,
many of them village
life
scenes . Rafty described
the collection as “ remarkable” and said
Soekarno “really loved
paintings . ” The Chinese government
produced a lavish
limited edition book
from the collection
for Soekarno . I
had a copy of
this magnificent volume
when I ran
a bookshop in
Adelaide and spent
many hours gazing
at the spectacular
plates. Uncertainty surrounds
what happened
to the art collection
following Soekarno’s
demise and the bloody
upheaval that took place when Suharto
took over. It was stated
in some quarters that the
Chinese had kept the collection .
Rafty
became famous for his
caricatures of world leaders , celebrities and
top athletes . He also
did cartoons , a weekly
comment and produced comics , one called Muggs the
Golfer , another about
a boxer . A portrait he
did of
the poet, author and journalist Dame
Mary Gilmore was bought
by the Australian
government for the
National Art Gallery
.
Many of Rafty’s
drawings of
the world’s best golfers
were used in the
l975 book Tony Rafty’s
Golfers A Treasury of Stars in Caricature by
golf writer Terry Smith.
. It was
dedicated to Rafty’s
younger brother, Stanley,
pictured as a young caddy. One
of Tony’s
sons , a lawyer,
was named after
Stanley.
But for the Moscow
meet
, Rafty had covered all the Olympic
Games since
l948 . His
caricatures of sporting stars have featured
in several exhibitions . Many of his drawings
appeared in the popular
Sporting
Life
magazine and he knew and mixed with all
the top Australian
cricketers
. A Don
Bradman bat, autographed on both sides , is one of his prized
possessions. Over the
years he went
on many
car rallies and vehicle test runs throughout
Australia , producing
numerous caricatures and cartoons
. For Pix magazine he provided
a detailed
route map across Australia for contestants
in the London to Sydney
car race . Rafty said the audacious
rally driver “Gelignite ” Jack Murray, who livened
things up
by hurling
sticks of explosives about ,
terrified some of the overseas contestants when
they arrived
in Perth from Bombay
by informing them they could be speared by wild Aborigines, attacked
by giant kangaroos and perish
in
the trackless wastes of the
outback .
Rafty’s
skill at rapid sketching saw him
cover court cases for
Channel 7. He is a founder member of
the Black and White Artists’ Club and a
longtime president of the Australian
War Correspondents’
Association . For 23
years he was deeply involved in the running of Sydney’s Journalists’ Club , its president for a time
, which caused moments
of lively debate on the home front
. When the former
NT
News
editor Jim Bowditch
went to Sydney
he was often entertained by Tony
Rafty and former
war correspondent , poet ,
journalist Kenneth Slessor at the
club. Rafty inquired about Bowditch’s
well-being after Cyclone
Tracy
Rafty was still playing golf
late in life and was
patron of St Michael’s Golf Club , Sydney . For services to
the media , he was
awarded the OAM . Another
honour bestowed upon him is the Greek
Gold Cross of Mount
Athos. Rafty led the Australian war correspondents group at Anzac Day marches. On a trip to Canberra in recent times he toured the archives and viewed sketches he made
when he was an itchy and scratchy
soldier in Darwin ,
and
was presented
with copies of several.
