'A' Battery off to the war

Depicts the transport ship, the New South Artillery, 'A' Battery SS Warrigal steaming down the harbour on departure from Sydney for the Boer War. A number of small boats also farewell members of 'A' Battery. William Jamieson Allom (1832-1902) was born in Buckinghamshire, England on 25 July 1832. William arrived in Australia on 23 November 1852. The ship on which he was travelling, the Margaret Brock, was wrecked off Cape Jaffa in South Australia, and the passengers walked to Adelaide from there. William then travelled to Auckland, New Zealand with his brothers, where he met his future wife, Hannah Scotter. They married on 18 December 1860 in Sydney, later on having 12 children. William left Sydney for Queensland in August 1864, and the Queensland Post Office Directory has him still listed as an artist in 1889. The 1890 to 1892 issues show a W J Allom as an auctioneer in Charters Towers, and it is thought that during this period he may also have run the local newspaper. William eventually left Queensland in 1893 and died in Sydney in June 1902. He exhibited his artworks at such events as the Queensland National Association Exhibition in Brisbane in August 1884, and he sent two paintings to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886.