sketcher, station manager and auctioneer, was born in Sydney, fourth son of the painter Frederick Garling and Elizabeth, née Ward. At the age of sixteen William took drawing lessons in Sydney from S.T. Gill and many years later made a sketch of Gill as he remembered him in 1859 – heavily bearded and wearing a cutaway coat and topper (p.c.). He recollected that he had originally been attracted to Gill as a teacher by seeing some of his bush pictures in the windows of Mader’s shop in George Street. 'His private residence was in Woolloomooloo (I think Stanley Street) and I used to occasionally go there at night for a lesson’, Garling wrote in his memoirs (ML ms). Classes were normally held in Gill’s studio room at Mader’s.
William’s brothers Frederick and Clarence also sketched, an interest doubtless encouraged by their father. In 1856 their sister, Adelaide Sophia, married Sloper Piper Cox (whose uncle, Edgar Cox, had married Mary Andrewina Piper of Henrietta Villa, Potts Point in 1843) and William became the manager of the Cox family property, Hobartville, at Richmond (NSW), as well as of other stations owned by Sloper Cox. William Garling’s known paintings (p.cs) are mainly of animals, usually horses. He had a business as a horse auctioneer in Richmond and for a time was mayor of the town. He married twice (his second wife was called Mary) and he died in Sydney on 30 March 1929.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
