In 1998 an unmarked grave of the co-designer
of the Australian National Flag, Annie Whistler
Dorrington, was discovered in Karrakatta Cemetery
in Western Australia. Within a year a monument to
her contribution to Australia's heritage was
erected. Annie was a gifted artist, one of the
five winners of the 1901 competition to design a
flag to celebrate the new Federal government of
Australia. Almost 33,000 designs were submitted
to the competition sponsored by the government
and the Havelock Tobacco Co. Annie received a
substantial prize of £40, about a year's salary.
The memorial stone erected in 1999 gives her
birthplace as Winkfield, Windsor, in i866. After
carrying out some research into her family
background I discovered that she was not born in
Berkshire. Indeed Annie was born on March 19,
1866 at Litchfield Grange, near Ashe, in
Hampshire to Richard and Sarah Mills Whistler (nee
Vines). The mistake over her birthplace has been
perpetuated not only on her memorial plaque but
also in print in a book on Winkfield.1
After Annie's birth the family moved around
Hampshire and eventually when she was four her
father, Richard Whistler, took up the tenancy of
Lower Farm, Winkfield Park. Her formative
years were spent at the farm, then about 430
acres, which belonged to Foliejon Park. The
Park's history goes back to the King's manor of
Foliejon in 1385 and adjoins Windsor Great Park.
At the time of Henry VIII, Sir William Norreys
held it until the sixteenth century. William
Blane, a Scotsman who had made his fortune from
the East India Company, owned the estate in the
early nineteenth century. His older brother, Sir
Gilbert Blane, a naval doctor, advocated the use
of limejuice for sailors to eliminate scurvy.
When Annie was living at the farm, the
occupant of Foliejon Park was Thomas Blane, a
retired Civil Servant who had served in India. In
his household was his nephew, a Lieutenant in the
Royal Artillery, his niece, wife of a Captain,
her six children and a governess from Sierra
Leone. The huge workforce of butler, servants and
grooms numbered 19. At the farm Richard Whistler
employed nine men and four boys, including an old
farmhand who was said to have fought at the
battle of Waterloo. The Whistler family consisted
of Annie's six sisters, Mary, Rosa, Ellen (also
born in Hampshire), Flora, Jessie and Carrie and
her two brothers Frank and Charles (all born at
Winkfield, Berkshire), who all enjoyed living in
the beautiful setting on the banks of the River
Thames. Annie and her sisters are said to have
spent their childhood painting, riding a donkey
and in winter skating on the lake. She did spend
some time, in her teens, with the family of her
mother's cousin, John Charles Vines, who was an
auctioneer and valuer at Odiham, Hampshire.
Annie
Whistler Dorrington
Her idyllic world was to change dramatically
when in 1887 her father Richard Whistler died.
His family from Old Basing, Hampshire and he was
believed, but not proven, to be related to James
McNeill Whistler, the American artist. Certainly
Annie was a capable artist and taught others in
later life. Her widowed mother Sarah Whistler
found the farm, which had grown by then to 457
acres, too much to cope with and a bailiff was
employed -Charles Dorrington. 'The sisters were
all agog, and wanting to know his name, to which
their mother tersely replied, 'It could be
Ahasuerus (King of Ancient Persia) for all I
know'. From then on Charles Dorrington was known
as Asu and Annie used this nom de plume for her
entry in the Flag competition.' 2
For whatever reason the Whistler family
bravely decided to emigrate and in about 1890,
they travelled on the steamship Britannia to
Melbourne closely followed by Charles and Harry
Dorrington. Charles and his older brother Harry
were believed to be from Sawbridgeworth,
Hertfordshire, and sons of a farmer. Annie and
Charles were married at St Albans Church,
Armadale, Melbourne, Victoria, in 1892. They
moved to Perth in 1895 when Charles was made
manager of the Swan River Shipping Company. About
50 of Annie's paintings were exhibited in London
in 1908. Annie's brother Frank went across to the
Western Australian goldfields to the pioneered
land in Merriden where Harry Dorrington joined
him later. Charles and Annie had no children of
their own and none of her sisters married, as
their mother did not approve of the 'wild
colonial boys'. Miles from her family and
separated from Charles, who was now a Shire Clerk
in Mundijong, she found solace in her paintings
of Western Australian wildflowers. The Art
Gallery of Western Australia holds 124 of the
watercolour paintings she produced. Suffering
from bouts of depression Annie, died of cancer
aged 60 in 1926 and was laid to rest in an
unmarked grave.
In April 1999, 100 people, including many
relatives, attended a dedication ceremony to mark
her grave with a monument and a bronze plaque.
The Australian Prime Minister John Howard sent a
letter of commendation.3
1 The Winkfield Chronicles by
the Winkfield History Project Group
2 The Flag and Annie Dorrington
by Dorothy Cooper
3 The Annie Dorrington Story by
Rr. Adm. PGN Kennedy
