AustLit

An artist and itinerant bush-worker, Reginald Malcolm is identified in contemporary newspapers as the author behind the pseudonym 'Ben Gun', which appeared in a number of Australian newspapers in the early twentieth century.

There is little information on Reginald Malcolm available, though at least one source notes that he was allegedly a steeplechase rider in England before arriving in Australia. He had an itinerant work life around the top end of the country, including running an 'aerated-waters factory' in Roebourne (in the Pilbara region) and unspecified work in Darwin.

He was a painter of bush scenes and World War I scenes: newspapers note he painted murals in the towns in which he worked, but other paintings were also exhibited, including what seem to have been watercolours.

As 'Ben Gun', Malcolm wrote a wide range of bus stories and war poetry, which seem to have stopped appearing in the late 1930s.

No birth date, emigration information, or death date have so far been traced.

Sources:

'Horticultural Society', Northern Miner, 1 April 1932, p.2.

'Jenny Lintott', Northern Standard, 5 September 1930, p.1.