George Needham was born in England and migrated with his family to Australia in 1914. He studied at the Prahran Technical College and started work in the Union Theatres art department. In 1923 he was head artist for Victory Publicity.

In the late 1920s, Needham created the comic 'The Dwight Family' for Table Talk magazine and drew cartoons for the Melbourne Age in the 1930s. The Argus (15 March 1938) reports Needham held his first public exhibition of oils and water colours at Margaret McLean's gallery, not long before he divorced his first wife and moved to Sydney with his children.

During the early 1940s, Needham produced second world war propaganda art.

In 1946, Needham developed The Bosun and Choclit to sell as a newspaper strip. Elmsdale Publications offered to publish the strips as a comic book. Early issues are signed using the pseudonym 'George Robb', a variation on his wife's name. This popular series ran until the late 1950s.