Norman Carter Captain PG Taylor, EGM, MC

Captain Patrick Gordon (Bill) Taylor (1896–1966) was a highly decorated aviator. During World War I, he served in the Royal Flying Corps, flying sorties against the infamous Red Baron, and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. In the 1930s, he flew with Charles Kingsford Smith on his record-breaking flights, and was a ferry pilot for military aircraft across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during World War II. In 1951, he flew his Catalina flying boat, Frigate Bird II – now in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney – on a pioneering route across the Pacific, from Sydney to Valparaíso in Chile. Taylor was knighted in 1954 for services to aviation.

Norman St Clair Carter was a renowned stained-glass artist and prolific portrait painter in the first half of the 20th century. He portrays the aviator in his RFC leather flying coat, a striking figure set against calm blue skies, his Lockheed Altair on the dunes. His portrait of Taylor is now in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW.