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Ernest Heber Thompson was born in Dunedin in 1892. He was an artist in black and white, and a cartoonist, who also taught at the Dunedin School of Art. He enlisted to fight in the First World War in 1915, and served as a sergeant in the 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. He completed a large number of cartoons while serving in France from 1916 to 1917. Some of these were published in the fortnightly soldiers‘ magazine ”Chronicles of NZEF“ and in the annual ”New Zealand at the Front“, a Christmas book published in 1917.

Thompson was badly wounded at Messines on 7 June 1917. During his convalescence he completed a series of sketches of medical personalities, which were published in the collection ”Light Diet“. The profits from this collection were used to commission William Barnes Wollen to paint ”Fleurbaix, Christmas 1916“.

Thompson remained in England after the end of First World War. He was a finalist at the Prix de Rome, 1923, and exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy. He was a representative of the New Zealand National Art Gallery in London, for the period from 1951 to 1966.

Thompson died in England in 1971.

Sources

• Archives New Zealand Documentation,  Series 898, National Collection of War Art