Brigadier-General Granville Ryrie

A portrait of an officer Major-General, the Hon. Sir Granville de Laune Ryrie, CMG, CB, KCMG, VD. He served in South Africa, and in Gallipoli and Palestine and was Senior Officer in Charge of the AIF in Egypt. He was made Major-General, and knighted, in 1919. Gullett wrote: 'He was a distinguished soldier, and was active in Australian public life at home. But above anything else, he was a great Australian bushman ... Despite his great weight, he was one of the most perfect horsemen in Palestine; and on the rifle ranges in the field ... he often showed himself one of the best shots in his brigade. His knowledge of his men was unequalled by that of any other light horse leader ... No leader in Palestine had a shrewder grasp of possibilities, both British and enemy... Steady, consistent success marked his leadership all the way. His wide human sympathy, his excellence in all physical exercise despite his weight and age, his unaffected indifference to the hottest fire, his close personal acquaintance with many hundreds of individual men, his keen humour and great talent as a story-teller, and, above all, his deep sense of duty and devotion to the cause for which he was fighting, and his determination to live as his troopers lived, sharing their rough rations and their hardships - all these things made him a personal force for good which extended far beyond his own brigade' (Gullett, pp. 66-8).

The artist George Lambert was a good friend of Brigadier-General Ryrie and frequently stayed with the him at Michelago, near Canberra where 'he went riding, sketching, and generally finding a second childhood' (Gray, p.116)