Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley

Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley was born in Auckland, New Zealand, March 31, 1880 and died in London, May 6, 1952.

Impeccable academic credentials prepared Birley for a career as a fashionable society portrait painter. After Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he trained in Dresden, Florence, the Académie Julian in Paris, and the St. John's Wood School of Art. While serving with the Sussex Home Guard, he sustained an eye injury, but continued his painting career. Among his important sitters were King George V and Queen Mary.