Born in England, William Bustard (1894–1973) was a painter, stained glass artist and book illustrator. He learnt stained glass techniques in London and worked in cathedrals locally and in the United States before enlisting and serving in World War One. After the war he remained in Europe and helped repair medieval stained glass in Belgium and France.

Bustard migrated to Queensland in 1921 with his wife Lily and soon became a leading figure in the development of art in Queensland and a strong advocate for Queensland artists. He taught at Brisbane’s Central Technical College, was president and life member of the Royal Queensland Art Society and a member of the Queensland National Art Gallery Board of Trustees and Arts Advisory Committee.

Several stained-glass windows designed by Bustard were made as memorials for those who died in the two World Wars including St Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral in Darwin, built in 1962 in memory of those who died in the Japanese air raid in 1942. A working illustration by Bustard for this window design is held in the QAGOMA Collection.

The artist continued to serve in World War Two, joining the Citizen Military Forces when Australia entered the war. In 1942, he was posted to Gayndah and Townsville where he worked as a camouflage artist at the RAAF bases. He was one of many Australian artists and designers who contributed to the war effort through their working knowledge of abstraction and illusion. These corresponded well with the two camouflage principles of concealment and deception¹ to fool the enemy. The Gayndah aviation spirit storage depot was transformed through Bustard’s camouflage designs in 1943; a watercolour painting of this camouflaged depot is held in the Australian War Memorial collection.

After the War, Bustard returned to painting, holding his second solo exhibition in 1945, teaching at the Central Technical College in Brisbane, and to his work with stained glass.

Endnote

1. Ann Elias, ‘The organisation of camouflage in Australia in the Second World War,’ Journal of the Australian War Memorial, issue 38.