HMAS Sydney (ll) Coming Home
Courtesy of the artist Darrell White
The Australian light cruiser departing Sydney for engagement in WW ll. Tragically, Sydney (ll) was
lost with all hands off the Western Australian Coast in 1941 in an action with the German Raider Kormoran which was also sunk.
- About Frederick Elliott
Fred Elliot was born in England in 1865 and came to Queensland with his family in 1876. He started work as a lithographic artist at the Queensland Government Printing Office in 1896 and worked there until 1903. He then moved to Sydney.
He specialised in marine watercolour studies, travelling up and down the coast by ship and sketching scenes that he later turned into paintings. Elliott was active in Sydney from the 1890s to the 1920s, mainly painting Sydney Harbour including views and individual ships.
His watercolours are characterised by a high key and strong atmospheric effects. He showed his paintings in the Queensland National Association’s exhibitions and with the Queensland Art Society and the NSW Society of Artists.
- About HMAS Sydney (ll)
Sydney was a Modified Leander Class, Light Cruiser built in Tyne, England. On 11 August, Sydney made her long-awaited entry through Sydney Heads and into Port Jackson where, just as with Sydney, her arrival was viewed from the shore by thousands of citizens who had turned out to see her.
In addition to her naval complement, Sydney carried six members of the Royal Australian Air Force who manned and maintained her embarked Seagull V amphibian aircraft.
More reading
- Additional resources for Frederick Elliott
- Additional resources for HMAS Sydney (ll)
