Man in khaki duffel coat and steel helmet: study for edward billyard-leake at the zeebrugge raid, 23 april 1918
iinscribed by the artist, in wash lower left, 'j e jefferies'. While he may be the figure model (or unconnected) this is a study for lieutenant edward billyard-leake rn in wyllie's 'zeebrugge: st george's day, 1918' which shows this 22-year-old tasmanian at the tiller of the cutter of one of the zeebrugge blockships, the old cruiser 'iphigenia', after she had been scuttled in the harbour. In the picture (reproduced in m. A. Wyllie's biography of her husband, 'we were one' (1935) f. P. 228) he is putting his men aboard the rescue boat 'ml282'. Marion wyllie wrote (p. 229): 'bill painted a careful portrait of billiard-leake [sic] in his duffel-coat and helmet, leaning forward, a tense look on his young, clean-shaven face, the tiller in his hand, in the act of steering the cutter full of desperately wounded men towards percy dean's m. L. 282 that was coming to the rescue, and behind, the carley raft, with the last man from the sinking "intrepid", young bonham-carter. All who could came and sat for bill and we gathered the wonderful story from every man's point of view. ' lieutenant billyard-leake was a a last-minute replacement to command the 'iphigenia' at zeebrugge because her designated captain went down with measles: bonham-carter commanded 'intrepid', another of the blockships. Dean was one of those awarded the vc for his part in the raid (billyard-leake a dso), and - from the 1935 credit line - appears to have owned wyllie's picture for which this is a study. Date: circa 1918. Dimensions: Sheet: 642 x 440 mm. Collection: Fine art.
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