Harry Pelling Gill

• Name — Harry Pelling Gill • Born — 9 March 1855 • Birthplace — Brighton, Sussex, England • Died — 25 May 1916 • Place of death — At sea, between Marseilles and Gibraltar, aboard the steamer Mongolia • Education — South Kensington School of Art (National Art Training School); Brighton School of Art • Occupation — Art curator, art educator, painter • Years Active — 1877–1915 • Employer — Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of South Australia (1882–1909); Adelaide School of Art (1909–1915) • Known for — Curatorship of the Art Gallery of South Australia • Children — Lancelot Waring Gill Erold Waring Gill • Elected — President, South Australian Society of Arts (1892; 1909–1911) • Spouse — Annie Waring Wright (m. 1886)

Gill was born at Brighton, Sussex, England, the son of Alfred Gill and his wife Frances Elizabeth, née Pelling. Gill studied at the Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School, the Brighton School of Art, and at the South Kensington School of Art (National Art Training School), where he gained a scholarship in 1877.

Gill was appointed honorary curator of the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1892, following the resignation of Louis Tannert, whose separate role as Master of the School of Painting was merged into Gill's own. After the pastoralist Sir Thomas Elder left the gallery a bequest of £25,000 in 1897, Gill pressed for a substantial part of it to be spent on contemporary work by living Australian and international artists. In 1899 he travelled to England and the Continent with a committee of fellow artists, purchasing works before moving on to New Zealand where an international exhibition of pictures was being held, and made further purchases for the gallery on the board's behalf. Gill also contributed to the design of the gallery's new building, which opened in 1900, and compiled its first official catalogue in 1903. In 1907 questions were raised in the South Australian Parliament about the sale of artworks through the School of Design. A subsequent board of inquiry found no impropriety, though it judged Gill to have been "somewhat injudicious". • Illustration — South Australian Society of Arts Selection and Hanging Committee of 1902 - Mr Harry P Gill (Chairman), Messrs J. White, J Ashton, Edward Davies, J Keene and H.E. Powell (Hon.Sec)

Gill's health began to decline around 1914, and a period of leave in Britain did not restore it. He resigned as principal of the Adelaide School of Art from 1 July 1915, and suffered a further stroke that September. In April 1916 he and his wife sailed for England aboard the steamer Mongolia, in the hope that the voyage would improve his health. He died at sea between Marseilles and Gibraltar on 25 May 1916, aged 61.

Harry Pelling Gill married Annie Waring Wright, a granddaughter of T. S. O'Halloran, on 29 April 1886. They had two sons: • Lancelot Waring "Lance" Gill (22 August 1887 – 31 December 1969), married Isabel May Moore on 24 December 1912. Isabel was the third daughter of S. W. Moore MLA for NSW. • Erold Waring Gill (21 May 1891 – 25 July 1916) He died of wounds received during the Somme Offensive.