Annie Dorrington

Richard was a tenant farmer on the Foliejon Estate and farm in Winkfield, Berkshire; the family claimed to be related to the artist James McNeill Whistler, but this has not been proven.

[3] Richard Whistler died in 1887 and a bailiff named Charles Dorrington, who later became Annie's husband, came to manage the farm.

As a result, Charles Dorrington was known by the nickname 'Asu' from then on, and Annie would use 'Ahasuerus' as a pseudonym when she later entered Australia's national flag competition (see below).

It was after the Dorringtons moved to Perth that Annie became known as a painter who specialized in watercolours of Western Australian wildflowers.

Typical of the plants she chose to depict are Orthrosanthus laxus (a small flower commonly known as morning iris), Chamelaucium aorocladus (known as waxflower), and kangaroo paw.

[1] She offered to sell some of them to Bernard Woodward, director of the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery, but without success.

In 1991, her paintings were featured in a survey exhibition mounted by the gallery and subsequently reproduced in the resulting show catalogue.

In October 1998, the Australian National Flag Association purchased the expired Grant of Right of Burial situated at Anglican MA 524.