George Furner Langley CBE DSO (1891–1971) worked as a high school teacher in Mansfield, Victoria before enlisting with the Australian Infantry Force when the First World War broke out. He was badly injured when the ship his unit embarked on for Gallipoli was torpedoed but, having recovered, he was seconded to serve with the Imperial Camel Corps in North Africa in early 1916. It was while he was with the Camel Corps that Langley met Scottish-born artist James McBey, who was an official war artist with the British Expeditionary Force and spent time with Langley's battalion in the Sinai Desert. This is one of a number of drawings of McBey made at the request of Langley's Cairo-based fiancée, Edmée Plunkett, in 1918. McBey's first few attempts did not look, to Plunkett, like the man she had fallen in love with. But she thought that this sketch captured his charm. The couple married in Cairo in 1918. On returning to Australia Langley resumed his work as a teacher, becoming headmaster of schools in Mansfield, Warrnambool, Bendigo and Melbourne. He was later President of the Victorian High School Headmasters' Association and was appointed CBE on his retirement in 1958.
Gift of Pat Lesslie (née Langley), in memory of George Langley and Rob Lesslie 2015
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