[2] He enlisted with the Citizen Military Forces on 9 May 1941, serving with the Royal Australian Engineers in New South Wales and Queensland, and was promoted to WOII before being discharged on 18 May 1944.
Dora Chapman, his wife, found paid employment teaching 1955–1969 at the South Australian School of Art, where Cant also taught part-time, hampered by ill-health.
[8] The studio held an exhibition at David Jones' gallery in August 1947: exhibitors included Cant, Dalgarno, Missingham, Shaw, J. Bergner, Herbert McClintock, Vic O'Connor, James V. Wigley, Roland Wakelin, Olive Long, Frank Medworth, and Oscar Edwards.
[10] Attacks on organisations associated with communism increased in the late 1940s, not only to SORA, but extending to the Mosman Spastic Centre and Sydney New Theatre, which was then staging Ben Jonson's, The Alchemist.
[11] An exhibition at David Jones' gallery in August 1949 was closed peremptorily[12] after criticism by the Sydney Morning Herald of the subject matter of some works.
[13] Reasons given for the cancellation include its being opened by Jessie Street and one key painting depicting a mass of people being led by a red flag,[14] to the show being a distraction from the store's displays of up-market clothing.