Clifton Earnest Pugh (1924-1990), William Philip Sydney (detail), 1964, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
1st Viscount De L'Isley
Governor-General, 3 August 1961 to 22 September 1965
Soldier, politician and businessman, William Philip Sidney (1909-1919) the last Briton commissioned as Australia’s Governor-General. In this role he endeared himself to the nation, with his ‘easy-going smile and warm handshake’.1 He is the second Governor-General to be a recipient of a VC, the highest of military honours.
De L’Isle was born on 23 May 1909 to William, 5th Baron de L’Isle, a descendent of Elizabethan courtier Sir Philip Sidney and of King William IV. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he joined the Grenadier Guards officer reserve. De L’Isle worked in banking for nine years, qualifying as a chartered accountant, and in 1937 was elected to Chelsea Borough Council. Joining his regiment at the outbreak of World War II, he served in France until evacuated from Dunkirk, and in the same month, June 1940, he married Jacqueline Corinne Yvonne, daughter of the Commander-in-Chief of the British field force, 6th Viscount Gort;2 they had five children. After serving in North Africa he returned to the continent to fight in Italy where he won the VC for bravery leading an attack on the Anzio beachhead, holding off German forces for more than 27 hours.3
Invalided from the military in 1944, de L’Isle was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as member for Chelsea, and shortly after was appointed parliamentary secretary to the ministry of pensions. The death of his father in 1945 saw de L’Isle enter the House of Lords. In Opposition following the election of the Attlee Government,4 he returned to work in the city, and opened his home, Penshurst Place, Kent, to the public. Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed him Secretary of State for Air in his 1951 Cabinet, a role which brought him to Australia during which time he met Prime Minister Robert Menzies.5 Menzies subsequently proposed de L’Isle as the next Governor-General, reasoning that he could not ‘think of an Australian who would be satisfactory’. He was sworn in on 3 August 1961 and wore full vice-regal uniform at the ceremony, the last Governor-General to do so.
A year into his term the family was struck by tragedy when Lady de L’Isle became seriously unwell; she died on 16 November 1962. The de L’Isles’ daughter Catherine served as hostess at Yarralumla when the Queen visited Australia in 1963.
De L’Isle returned to England in 1965 and married Margaret Eldrydd, Lady Glanusk, the following year. He continued to be active in business, and served as trustee of the RAF Museum, the Churchill Memorial Trust, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. De L’Isle was appointed KG in 1968. He served as founding chair and later president of the Freedom Association established in 1975.6 He died on 5 April 1991.
Clifton Earnest Pugh AO
Melbourne-born artist and environmentalist Clifton Pugh (1924-1990) left school at 14 to work in a newspaper office and aircraft factory. In the evenings he attended courses in cartooning at Swinburne Technical College and life-drawing at the Australian School of Arts and Crafts. At the end of his wartime military service in New Guinea and Japan (1943-47), Pugh attended the National Gallery of Victoria Art School under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme, studying with William Dargie. In 1957, he held his first major solo exhibition at the Victorian Artists’ Society. His skills as a portrait painter saw him awarded the Archibald Prize three times, including for his portrait of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (which was subsequently acquired by the Historic Memorials Commission). A winner of the Crouch and the Maude Vizard-Wholohan Prizes, Pugh’s works were widely exhibited in Australian and overseas galleries. He was Chairman of the Victorian ALP Arts Advisory Committee and a member of the Australian Council for the Arts. In 1985, Pugh was appointed an AO for his service to Australian art.
7
William Philip Sydney
by Clifton Ernest Pugh
1964
Oil on board
112.7 x 79.4 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. B Carroll,
Australia’s Governors-General: From Hopetoun to Jeffery, Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, Kenthurst, NSW, 2004, p. 138. See also C Cunneen,
‘De L’Isle, Viscount William Philip (Bill) (1909–1991)
’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2021, accessed 30 August 2021; PG Masefield, ‘Sidney, William Philip, first Viscount de L’Isle (1909–1991), army officer and politician’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
2
. C Falls and B Bond, ‘Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast, sixth Viscount Gort in the peerage of Ireland and first Viscount Gort in the peerage of the United Kingdom (1886–1946), army officer’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 3 November 2021.
3. ‘Appointment of New Governor-General’,
The Canberra Times, 11 April 1961, p. 1, accessed 12 October 2021.
4. ‘History of the UK Government: Past Prime Ministers: Clement Attlee’, Gov.uk, accessed 20 August 2021.
5. ‘History of the UK Government: Past Prime Ministers: Sir Winston Churchill’, Gov.uk, accessed 31 August 2021.
6. The Freedom Association: history’, Freedom Association, accessed 31 August 2021.
7. Information in this biography has been taken from: ‘Clifton Pugh’, Culture Victoria; J Pugh, ‘Clifton Pugh’, National Portrait Gallery; T Allen, ‘Pugh, Clifton Ernest (1924–1990)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2012; ‘Guide to the papers of Clifton Pugh: Biographical Note’, National Library of Australia; ‘Pugh, Clifton Ernest’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds,
The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 802. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.