Augustus Edwin John, O.M., R.A. (1878-1961)

William McElroy, described by John as 'a kind of Horatio Bottomley', was a friend of the Irish Senator and poet Oliver St John Gogarty, and the playwright Sean O'Casey. According to Michael Holroyd he 'occupied himself as coal merchant impresario and part race-horse owner (A. John, The New Biography, London, 1996, p. 518). Another oil portrait dated 1933 is reproduced in J. Rothenstein, Augustus John, London, 1944, no. 62.