Robert Esmond George (20 April 1888 – 1959) was an Australian theatre actor and director, mostly remembered as a watercolour artist and newspaper art critic.
[1] Mary and her family removed to Robert Street, Moonta; later lived at "Oriel", Sea View Road, Kirkcaldy.
He resigned from the Bank in 1912 and embarked on a successful series of engagements throughout Western Australia[2] with Annie Jones, whom he married in 1916.
He directed stage productions for students of St Peter's College[5] and from 1932 served as chairman of the WEA Dramatic Company.
[6] He enlisted with the Army Medical Corps in November 1917 and embarked as a private on the SS Gaika for England in August 1918.
[19] In late 1939 or early 1940 he joined the 2nd AIF,[20] and served in the Middle-East, sketching and writing articles on the people and culture of Palestine and Egypt for Australian newspapers.
[23] He returned to Adelaide and journalism, and for the next twenty-odd years had weekly by-lined articles in the Sunday Mail, notable for their easy unpretentious style and positive outlook, even for non-representational work, though he had little time for what he called "puzzle pictures".
[citation needed] George acted in a large number of plays with the Adelaide Repertory Theatre company (notably as Eilert Lövborg in Hedda Gabler), and directed (A.R.T.
except where noted) the following: Around this time he founded his own "Esmond George Players" then was appointed director with Perth Repertory Club, and was associated with: He served as stage manager for other productions, notably The Infernal Machine (Jean Cocteau) in July 1937, and as secretary to the West Australian Drama Festival in 1937.
Esmond Robert George married Annie Robina "Nance" Jones ( – 17 July 1920) in September 1916,[3] and had a home in Blackwood.