Ron Vivian

Ron Vivian (19 February 1914 – 5 September 1973) was an Australian cartoonist who is perhaps best known as having drawn Ginger Meggs after the original creator, Jimmy Bancks died in 1952.

Biography Ronald Charles Vivian was born on 19 February 1914 in Sydney, New South Wales, to Charles Cecil Vivian and Vida Francis.

Vivian enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in January 1942 and served in Australia and New Guinea during the Second World War. Vivian was awarded the 1939-45 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal 1939-45 and Australian Service Medal 1939-45. and other Consolidated Press publications. When Jim Bancks died suddenly of a heart attack in 1952, Packer held a competition among several artists to select a suitable person to continue to draw Ginger Meggs. Numerous artists submitted trial pages and in the end Vivian's entry was chosen over others including Dan Russell (whom Packer thought that his brother Jim Russell had drawn instead). He then drew the comic for ACP's Sunday Telegraph from April 1953 for the next twenty one years, until his death in early 1973.