Sapper Vasco's arrival in England is reported in the British Australasian, 1917. The image shows Vasco sketching fellow soldiers on the troopship Suevic, en route to Britain in 1916.
The British Australasian was an interesting institution in late 19th and early 20th century London. It reported on the comings and goings of Australians and New Zealanders in the Britain and kept them up to date with events back in the colonies. Its reports were often picked up by papers back in Australia. The British Australasian's offices in High Holborn also functioned as a post office and general agency for colonials away from home, a service provided for later generations of Australians by various state offices.
Vasco got notices in the British Australasian in both 1907 and 1917. There are some interesting connections behind this. As a child in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, Vasco's neighbour was Maurice Brodzky who was editor of the influential paper Table Talk. Brodzky's son Horace was encouraged in his early artistic endeavours by Vasco's father, Arthur Loureiro, and Horace went on to establish an international reputation as an artist. Forced out of journalism in Melbourne as a result of his exposures of the corrupt land-boomers of the 1880s, Maurice Brodzky later found work on a number of San Francisco newspapers. Another son, Leon Brodzky (aka Leon or Spencer Brodney), was for some time an editor of the British Australasian and later worked in the US.
With newspaper publicity, Vasco had good modelling. His father's name featured regularly in Melbourne publications, especially Table Talk. His mother, Marie Therese Loureiro, was art critic for the Melbourne Age. Even as an itinerant street artist Vasco managed to get notices in papers such as the San Francisco Call and the British Australasian.
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