First Australian wounded at Gallipoli arriving at Wandsworth Hospital, London

Nurses of the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, are pictured attending to a newly arrived patient. Though completed in 1921, an article in the Darling Downs Gazette from November 1918 noted that ‘In his spare time Sergeant Coates is painting a large composition called Bringing in the Wounded, the scene of which is the receiving room of the Wandsworth Hospital.’ (Personal, Darling Downs Gazette (Qld), 12 November 1918, p. 4) The title of the work references the first casualties the artist encountered – British and Australian soldiers wounded at Gallipoli.

George Coates served with the Royal Army Medical Corps from April 1915 to April 1919, together with fellow Australian artists Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and AH Fullwood. Together with this major painting, he completed a number of significant portraits while serving at the hospital, working in a small curtained off alcove in the recreation room, which served him as a studio.