amateur photographer and army officer, was aide-de-camp to Samuel Wensley Blackall, Governor of Queensland, in 1868 71. He was taking photographs at Government House, George Street, Brisbane in 1868-69, e.g. View from my Office and Croquet Lawn, Government House, 1869 . They are included in his album (NLA) together with more personal photographs such as an atmospheric portrait of Mrs Craigh gazing soulfully into a mirror (1868), a group portrait of his wife and two women friends captioned The Three Graces , and The Loving Couple June 1869 , a photograph of a seated woman and standing man posed together against an espaliered wall. Willis points out that Verney tended to add humorous captions when the photograph was less than successful; hence a self-portrait with an out-of-focus woman behind him is labelled 'G.H. Verney and his Wife’s Ghost’, while an exceptionally gloomy wife is 'Mrs. Verney (cheerful?)’.
In a letter to the Brisbane Courier of December 1869 the pseudonymous 'A Private’ said he had heard that 'the eccentric person who holds the office of Aide-de-Camp to the Governor, and who has been found rather too eccentric even for the “Amateur Civil Service Christy Minstrel Club” is seriously thinking of obtaining a seat in Parliament’ and concluded: 'Personally, I have no objection to Lieutenant Verney. He has afforded me a good laugh on more than one occasion and I admire his horsemanship, his pipe and his versatility of talent’. No parliamentary career is known. Indeed, Verney seems to have spent the rest of his working life as an aide-de-camp, ultimately transferring his allegiances to Government House, Melbourne. As late as November 1909 he was reported as being a member of the governor-general’s party at the Melbourne Cu
In the interim, Captain Verney returned to Britain, where he continued to practise photography. He published two articles in the British Journal Photographic Almanac 1877 : 'The Utilizing of Amateur’s Negatives’ (in which he claimed to have 'some fifty 10 × 12 [inch, 25.4 × 30.4 cm] plates … embracing views of Claremont Palace, Melrose, Dryburgh, Roslin, Dunkeld, Holy Islands, Netley Abbey, etc.’, all in Scotland or the north of England) and 'Useful Photographic Hints for Amateurs’.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
