Times on Westall in Australia

Times 17/09/1959 p3
Westall in Australia
William Westall, A.R.A., has left no great claims to fame as an original artist, but he earned his niche in geographical history when, on the recommendation of Benjamin West, the then president of the Royal Academy, he joined Matthew Flinders's Australian Expedition 1801-03 as its official draughtsman and thus became the first artist to leave any extensive record of that little known continent. A small exhibition at the premises, in Northumberland Avenue, of the Royal Commonwealth Society, which now possesses the sketches and watercolours he made at the time, shows him to have been an apparently conscientious and accurate observer both of the scenery and of the unexpected flora and fauna he encountered.
A feature of the exhibition is that nine of the paintings he subsequently produced from his original material have been lent from Admiralty House and are shown alongside the sketches for the first time, but it is easy to see that the conventions of fashionable picture-making somewhat compromised the freshness and reliability of his first impressions. The exhibition which lasts until September 30, includes some biographical material and a copy of Flinders's two volumed Voyage to the Terra Australis illustrated by engravings from Westall's paintings.

Times 17/08/1962 p12
Reception Royal Commonwealth Society
A reception was held yesterday at the Quantas Galleries, Piccadilly, on the occassion of the opening by Rear Admiral E.G. Irving, Hydrographer of the Navy, of an exhibition of drawings and paintings of Australia by Mr William Westall. Mr C.E.J. Whitting, chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society's library committee and Mrs Whitting received the guests with Rear Admiral and Mrs Irving. Among those present were:- Lord and Lady Carrington, Lord and Lady Casey, Lord Kilmaine, Lord Spens, Lord Walston, Sir Allen and Lady Brown, the Agent General for Western Australia and Mrs Hoar, Sir Hilary Blood, Sir Alan Burns, Sir Clifford Jarrett, Sir James Kirby, Sir Martin Gilliat and Vice Admiral E.W. Langley-Cook

Extracts from Times 09/12/1991
'Library of imperial Britain to be dispersed' by Matt George
On December 20, the library will close and the collection, a jewel of British bibliography built up over 120 years will be lost to future generations....This is not the first time that the library, which receives no grants, has been under threat. In 1968, a proposal to sell some of its treasures to clear a £50,000 overdraft led to recriminations and the subsequent resignation of Sir Alan Burns, the then chairman of the library, in protest. Eventually the William Westall collection of 140 drawings and watercolours, covering voyages to Austrralia between 1801 and 1803, was sold to the National Library of Australia.