McDiarmid, Douglas Kerr

(1922– ).

Artist.

Douglas McDiarmid was born at Taihape, New Zealand, on 14 November 1922. He was educated at Timaru Boys' High School and Canterbury University College, where he obtained his B.A. In 1945 he went to London, but after a brief period there moved to Paris where he has lived ever since. He worked at Cannes for one year and in 1949–50 revisited New Zealand. His works were exhibited in London (1960) and in New Zealand (1961). Douglas McDiarmid is at present working on landscapes and experimenting in new textures. He describes himself as an expressionist painter — one who expresses the visual rhythm of things.

Mirams, Gordon Holden

(1909– ).

UNESCO Secretariat.

Gordon Mirams was born at Christchurch on 9 March 1909. He was educated at Christ's College and at Canterbury University, where he studied for his M.A. and Dip. Journ. For eight years he was a reporter on the Christchurch Sun. From 1935 to 1937 he was director of publicity for the J. C. Williamson Corporation and for the next two years served on the staff of Radio Record. In 1939 he became chief subeditor and film critic on the New Zealand Listener. He spent 1948–49 with UNESCO in Paris, but returned to New Zealand to take up a post as Chief Censor and Registrar of Films for the Department of Internal Affairs. He held this position until 1959, when he joined the Mass Communications Department of the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris.

Among other New Zealanders living in France, the following may be mentioned: Vera Moore, who has won acclaim as a concert pianist, particularly for her interpretations of Chopin and Debussy; and “Count” Geoffrey Wladyslaw Vaile Potocki de Montalk (Auckland), a prominent eccentric, who is a poet (by his own definition) and claims to be Wladislavs V, the rightful King of Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia.