Lord Byng of Vimy, 1908

Artist: de Laszlo, Philip Alexius (1869-1937)

Medium: pencil on wove paper
Dimensions: 37.5 x 29.4 cm (sheet)

Julian Hedworth Goerge Byng, Viscount Byng of Vimy (1862-1935) was a British nobleman and career military officer who commanded the Canadian Corps at the battle of Vimy Ridge during the First World War. Despite heavy losses, the battle was a strategic victory and a source of great national pride. Byng served as governor general of Canada from 1921 to 1926. At the end of his term, he became embroiled in a constitutional controversy when he refused to dissolve Parliament at the request fo Prime Minister W.L Mackenzie King.

This drawing is a study for a painting done in 1908 by the fashionable London society portraitist, Philip A. de Laszlo.

National Archives of Canada, negative no. C-104535