Shattock Edmond Jack (John).
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Title
Shattock Edmond Jack (John).
Author
Shattock, Peter .Publication date
2015Type
Manuscript | Biography
Language
EnglishCountry of context
Australia
Abstract
SHATTOCK, Edmond Jack (John)
28 Jun 1913 to 9 Oct 2004.
Edmond Jack Shattock was born in Essendon. His father was a commercial traveller who died when he was 9 and his mother was committed to a home shortly after. Young Jack, as he was known, was farmed out to aunts, mostly on his mother’s side, for 7 years. He wanted to be a carpenter like his uncle, but family pressure turned him away from a trade to commercial art (what today would be called graphic design) and he studied at RMIT. He began working with J Walter Thompson and at the age of 15 they advised him to put his age up to 16 and apply for a better paying job as a commercial artist in Perth. His elder sister lent him the fare and he sailed on the Westralia (later to be requisitioned for war time service in 1939). Even though the job was for an 18 year old, his skills won him the job. It was there that the girls in the office renamed him “John”, as they didn’t like “Jack”, and he was known as John thereafter. It was in Perth that he met and married Bernice in 1935. She died in 2002, after 67 years in a wonderful relationship. During his time in Perth he was given the task of giving the other staff lessons, something he did quite a lot during his working life.
Keen to fight for “King and Country”, he returned to Melbourne and was about to emigrate to Canada to enlist when the 2/24th began enlisting in Wangaratta. His skills as an artist stood him in good stead in his army service in the Middle East. He was seconded to produce maps and was thus spared exposure to much of the fighting at that time. However, he was in the front line in New Guinea, and was wounded at the time of the birth of his first son. During the war he did a number of postcard-size pen and ink sketches of where he had been, which we still have.
After the war he went to Sydney looking for work before returning to Melbourne around 1948. We moved into a new house in Beaumaris in 1952 and he did a lot of the finishing off, making all the built-in wardrobes, the kitchen cupboards and drawers, and then moving on to build a lounge suite. This gave him great satisfaction given his early desire to be a carpenter, and he continued to build furniture right through his life, moving from the utilitarian through to beautiful pieces, which are prized by the family, as well as many pieces of his art work.
We are not certain of his exact movements at this stage but I remember visiting him at Rickards above the National Bank on the corner of Russell and Bourke Streets, then him working from home before he was retained by Myer 1966 with an office in their advertising department on a half floor (4 ½) of the Lonsdale Street store.
Around this time he was commissioned to do a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II prior to her 1954 visit, which we understand was distributed to all government schools and Post Offices in Victoria. When I began work in 1968, the Windsor Post Office still had their copy hanging. His ‘signature’ was a very fine uppercase ‘SHATTOCK’ across one shoulder.
We understand he did work directly onto the lithographic plates at times and, at other times he produced individual colour images to aid the process. He certainly knew the process inside out and there is a feeling that he taught it at RMIT, although they have no record of this.
It wasn’t all work – we have very fond memories of frequent camping trips, which introduced us to many parts of Australia and instilled into us a love of the country and travel. After he retired he took up water colour painting and usually had his paints with him and the family has numerous paintings of the countryside.
He was an active member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of Victoria during the time he owned his Lancia Lambda and Citroen Light 15 and their magazine still uses the logo designed by him. He was fiercely proud of all his vehicles and taught himself the skills to maintain, rebuild and respray them (Jaguar Mk2, Bristol 400, Harley Davidson WLA and his latest, a 1967 MGB). He was well known for his MGB, which he drove until he was 88 and it remains in the family.
He worked for the Myer Emporium on a retainer from 1966 until 1980.
He loved to keep fit, and for years ran down to the beach and swam every morning, rain, hail or shine. It was during this period that he started collecting “driftwood”, which was later turned on his lathe and used in his furniture.
Outside his home life a major activity was with the 2/24th army battalion association. He was on the editorial committee of the battalion history, designed the dust cover and drew the maps used in the book. He visited the sick and edited the battalion newsletter for many years. His battalion had been his “family” for 5 years, and he was very close to them and very proud of all “his boys”. The only Anzac Day marches he missed where during the last 3 years of his life.