The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Brierly, Sir Oswald Walters
Brierly, Sir Oswald Walters, R.W.S., F.R.G.S., marine painter to the Queen since 1874, is the son of the late Thomas Brierly, and was born at Chester in 1817. He was on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake during her surveys of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, the Louisiade Archipelago, and part of New Guinea. He visited New Zealand, Tongatabu, Tahiti, and many other places in the Meander; and has cruised in different parts of the world for eleven years on board various of her Majesty's ships, an island of the Louisiade and a point in Australia being named after him. Sir Oswald Brierly—as he became in 1885—was during the Russian war present at the operations with the fleet in the Baltic, Black Sea, and Sea of Azoff; he was also by command on board the royal yacht at the great naval review at the close of the Russian war to make sketches for the Queen. In 1867 he went with H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh in his voyage round the world in the Galatea, and his sketches of the cruise were exhibited at South Kensington. In 1868 he was attached to the suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales during their trip up the Nile. He has painted many important historical marine pictures, the principal of which have been engraved. He has been awarded the fourth class Medjidie, fourth class Osmanieh, and the Turkish war medal, and is an Officer of the Redeemer of Greece. He was formerly a J.P. for New South Wales, and is at present Curator of the Painted Hall, Greenwich.