John Kingsmill is an Australian author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, one time actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and public speaker, and amateur social historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 in 1920 and educated at Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...

. He was on active service in WW2, after which he completed his accountancy studies and was in practice for some years. He achieved notice for his performance as Des Nolan (Gig) in Rusty Bugles, the controversial 1948 play by Sumner Locke Elliott

Sumner Locke Elliott

Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist.-Biography:Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Helena Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth...

. In 1955, he was a founding member of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, and was its leader for several years, serving on its Board until 1984. During the 1970s he worked as a senior advertising copywriter at the George Patterson advertising agency Sydney office.

External links

• Catalogue at the National Library of Australia
  National Library of Australia
  The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...