Oil on canvas of Henry Nevill by Oswald Burley in Seaton Deleval Hall, Northumberland.
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Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Gilbert Ralph Nevill, 3rd Marquess of Abergavenny DL (2 September 1854 – 10 January 1938), styled Lord Henry Nevill between 1876 and 1927, was a British peer.
Neville was the second son of William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny and his wife Caroline Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, daughter of Sir John Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 2nd Baronet. Born in Bramham, West Yorkshire and christened at St. Alban’s Church, Frant, he was a lieutenant-colonel in the Territorial Army Reserves, a major in the Sussex Imperial Yeomanry and a deputy lieutenant of Sussex. In 1881 he lived in Chiddingstone, Kent and in 1891 at Thornhill, Hammerwood, East Sussex. He succeeded to the marquessate in October 1927, aged 73, on the death of his brother, who died without issue.
Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley MC RA ROI (31 March 1880 – 6 May 1952) was an English portrait painter and royal portraitist in the early part of the 20th century.
Birley was born in New Zealand to Hugh Francis Birley (1855–1916) while his parents were on a world tour. He was born into an old Lancashire family. Upon returning to England, he was educated at Harrow School, London and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He was the great-grandson of Hugh Hornby Birley (1778–1845), who led the troops at the Peterloo massacre.
Birley served in France in World War I, first with the Royal Fusiliers, later transferring to the Intelligence Corps, obtaining the rank of captain and being awarded the Military Cross in 1919. During World War II he served with the rank of major in the Home Guard.
A favourite of the Royal Family, Birley was well known for his portraits of King George V, Queen Mary, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II.
He painted several highly regarded portraits of Sir Winston Churchill (to whom he also gave lessons), and also a life-size portrait of Mahatma Gandhi which was the first to be hung in the Lok Sabha shortly after Indian Independence on 28 August 1947.
Other subjects were many war-time leaders such as Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery, as well as Admiral Mountbatten and Air Marshal Trenchard. He also painted the wealthy American financiers Andrew Mellon and J. P. Morgan, the psychiatrist Sir James Crichton-Browne, and Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. Birley painted the portrait of Leeds Lord Mayor Sir Charles Lupton (1855–1935).
Birley was knighted in 1949.
A major retrospective exhibition of Birley’s work was held at the Philip Mould & Company gallery on Pall Mall in 2007.
