Oswald Pryor was born at Moonta in South Australia's 'Little Cornwall' in 1881 and began working in the mines at the age of 13. In 1911 he became chief draughtsman and then surface manager at Moonta, a position he held until the mines closed in 1923. Pryor was a clever cartoonist and from 1901 his work was published in many Australian newspapers. CJ Dennis first suggested that Pryor use the characters of the Cornish immigrants with whom he grew up and worked with in his cartoons, and these have become his most enduring works. One aspect of the lives of these people was their strong Methodist beliefs, and consequently religion often surfaces in Pryor's cartoons. Here the miner is more interested in getting his pasties in the oven than in attending church.

Pryor, Oswald