Major General Sir Granville Ryrie

Depicts a profile portrait, in uniform, of Major General the Honourable Sir Granville de Laune Ryrie (1865-1937) KCMG, CB, VD, 1st AIF, Commanding Officer 2 Australian Light Horse Brigade. Born in New South Wales, Granville began working as a jackaroo in 1884. He later enlisted in the NSW militia as a trooper and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 1st Australian Horse in 1898. During the Boer War he joined the Imperial Bushmen as a captain, arriving in South Africa in May 1900. In September 1900 he was wounded near Wonderfontein, before returning to Australia in June 1901. After the Boer War, Ryrie began a new career as a politician, being elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly in April 1906. On 17 September 1914, Ryrie was appointed commander of the AIF's 2nd Light Horse Brigade. At Gallipoli, he was wounded by shrapnel in September 1915. In December 1918, Ryrie took command of the Anzac Mounted Division. In May 1919 he was promoted to Major General. Returning to Australia, Ryrie resumed his political activities, serving as Assistant Minister of Defence in the Hughes cabinet from February 1920 to December 1921. The artist George Lambert whom Ryrie had be-friended in the First World War frequently stayed with Ryrie at Michelago, near Canberra where Lambert would paint and spend time with Ryrie's family, 'he went riding, sketching, and generally finding a second childhood' (Gray, p.116) From 1927 to 1932 he was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and represented Australia in the League of Nations. He died on 2 October 1932. The artist, Henry Woollcott, served as a Private at the 3rd Australian Hospital at Abbeville, France, in July 1918. He met fellow artist Arthur Streeton here who recommended Wollcott to the then Director of the War Memorial, J. Treloar. Correspondence sent from Streeton to Captain Stewart in July 1918 notes of Woollcott; ' his present duties are in the Sisters Mess where he scrubs the floors, etc... Lt. Col. T.Y. ... asked me down to the hospital for a day or two, sent for Woolcott & his drawings and he certainly has considerable gifts...'(AWM 93 404/009/009. Woollcott painted this work while appointed as a war artist with the Australian War Records Service, London.