Researching John Pick

Pick was born in Leicester. He was married to Gene Pick (died 2019) with two children, both sons (Peter Pick and David Pick). Pick received his education at Sidcot School, a Quaker institution in Somerset. He attended Cambridge University for a year but left at the outbreak of Second World War to join the Friends' Ambulance Unit. In the 1980s he moved to live in Balmaclellan in Galloway.

Pick was the author of the novels Out of the Pit, The Lonely Aren't Alone, Under the Crust and A Land Fit for Eros, the last co-authored with John Atkins. He also wrote a number of short stories, articles, poetry, and nonfiction works. The Last Valley (originally published in the UK in 1959 as The Fat Valley) was his first book to be published in the United States. It was later made into a film starring Omar Sharif and Michael Caine.

Pick was born near Mount Gambier. In 1892, his father took up Braemar Station, sixty miles north-east of Burra, and Pick took over ownership of the property in 1902. In 1909, he sold Braemar and purchased Arcoona Station, and in 1920 sold Arcoona and purchased Coondambo Station, which he owned until his death. He was a vice-president of the Stockowners' Association of South Australia from 1925 to 1930, and was patron of the Port Augusta Racing Club from 1914 until his death.

Pick was elected to the House of Assembly at the 1915 state election for the conservative Liberal Union, succeeding the retired Robert Homburg, junior. In February 1918, less than two months before the 1918 election, Pick, along with the two other Liberal members for Burra Burra, William Miller and Laurence O'Loughlin, defected to the rival Farmers and Settlers Association. The three members cited a disputed preselection plebiscite which they argued had been designed to defeat O'Loughlin, and neglect of rural regions by the Liberal Union as reasons for their defection. All three were defeated at the election, losing to two Labor candidates and a Liberal.

In 1926, he was selected as one of five members of a Royal Commission into the pastoral industry in South Australia. The commission reported in 1927, making recommendations on the classification of pastoral land, the length of leases for pastoral land, processes for resumption or surrender of leases, the settlement of land that remained unoccupied, and a range of other issues related to the industry. The report formed the basis of subsequent legislative reforms, and upon his death the Transcontinental described Pick's contribution as "outstanding work", with his "wide experience and practical knowledge...a great advantage".

Pick died suddenly at Coondambo Station in 1951, at the age of 81. His funeral was held in Adelaide. The Port Augusta Town Council and Port Augusta Racing Club both held minutes' silence to acknowledge his death.