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Painter, brought up in Durban, South Africa, who claimed relationship to the artist Augustus John. D’Oyly-John (sometimes unhyphenated) became a widely recognised painter for several decades after World War II with his idealised sun-drenched views of a never-never south of France and the Mediterranean, a few reproduced as prints, often high in the Printsellers’ Association’s popularity poll. He eventually settled in Rottingdean and was known as the Van Gogh of Sussex after a colourful past which included working on a Japanese tramp steamer, life-saving in Colombo and pearl-fishing in Manila and “a bit of hush-hush gun-running”. He also served for eight years with the police in Tanganyika, rising to district commissioner. When war broke out he returned to England, joined the Military Police, and served in Africa and the Middle East, later with Civil Affairs on the continent.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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