Jules François Archibald, journalist, was born on 14 January 1856 at Kildare, Geelong, Victoria, and was baptised John Feltham. When he was 18, he joined the Victorian Education Department as a clerk.  It was during this time that John Feltham Archibald recreated himself as a Frenchman, Jules François Archibald.  After being dismissed from this position, he found a job as a clerk with the Maryborough engineering firm of John Walker & Co at £5 a week.  He was sent by Walker’s to the Palmer goldfield, feeding quartz into Walker’s crushing mill, and generally looking after its operations. He lived in a hut with miners and survived a food shortage, snakebite and an outbreak of fever.  These hardships inspired his lifelong concern for the underprivileged.  Later he returned to Sydney and in 1880 established a newspaper – the Bulletin.  However it was his art which subsequently made him famous and wealthy.  After his death a part of his estate was endowed as an annual prize for portrait painting – the coveted Archibald Prize.