Denis Santry

(b. Cork, 14/05/1879 – d. Durban, 14/04/60). Architect, cartoonist, sculptor, jewelry designer, animator. Originally an apprentice to a carpenter (possibly his father), Denis Santry won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, after which he returned to his home town of Cork in Ireland to work with a local firm of architects. In 1902 he moved to South Africa for health reasons and launched a career as architect and civil engineer in Cape Town. During that time he began to develop a reputation as cartoonist, with his work appearing under the pseudonym of Adam. He was also a metal worker and, with his wife, Madeleine, who was an enameller, he designed jewelry, including the ceremonial key for the opening of Cape Town's new City Hall, which was completed in 1905. Eventually he gave up his architectural practice to concentrate on his art and in 1910 he moved to Johannesburg to become a political cartoonist with the Rand Daily Mail as well as the Sunday Times. During World War I his work also appeared in newspapers overseas and it was during this time that he appeared as the artist in the short An Artist’s Inspiration (1916), the first South African film to use animation. Possibly inspired by Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur, which had appeared in 1914, it also featured Mabel May and Dick Cruikshanks. After a brief stay in the United States, he won competitions to design a war memorial and a bank in Singapore and settled there in 1919 to join a leading firm of architects, for whom he also designed the huge Sultan Mosque. In 1934 he planned to retire to England, but his health eventually forced him to return to South Africa, where his wife died in 1944. He died in 1960 and was survived by his second wife, Edith. (FO)