"Man and his Donkey"

 

The image depicts Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance and his donkey, 'Murphy'. Kirkpatrick is shown as a full-length figure, moving forwards along a cliff edge, supporting a wounded soldier seated on his donkey. Later research undertaken by the Australian War Memorial suggests that the water colour was copied by Moore-Jones from a photograph of a stretcher-bearer with the New Zealand Medical Corps, Richard Alexander Henderson.

 

This work was reproduced by the British Historical Section (Military Branch) of the Committee of Imperial Defence, London, in July 1926. It was owned by the Commonwealth Government in London and then came back to Australia during the 1960s, where it became property of the Prime Minister's Department and from there entered the National Gallery of Australia's collections during the 1980s. The painting was presented to the Commonwealth Government through Sir John McEwan.