William Dobell Billy boy

This portrait by William Dobell of Joe Westcott is now in the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra with the title The billy boy.

It was Westcott’s job to boil water for tea breaks taken by the workers at Rathmines Air Base in NSW where Dobell was working with other artists in the camouflage unit during World War II.

A Glaswegian former marine, Westcott was a local identity at Wangi on Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, where Dobell’s parents had a holiday cottage.

Dobell exhibited two other portraits in the 1943 Archibald competition. One of them was of journalist Brian Penton; the other of artist Joshua Smith, which was awarded the prize, leading to the biggest controversy in Archibald history.