J. R. Tranthim-Fryer

John Robertson Tranthim-Fryer (1858[1] – 13 July 1928) was an Australian sculptor and educator, the first director of what became Victoria's Swinburne Technical College.

[2] In 1884, as J. R. Fryer, jun., he took art classes under Achille Simonetti and Lucien Henry[3] at the Sydney Technical College, in which he was highly successful,[4] winning a scholarship for a further two years' training.

Thus accredited, in June 1890 he was appointed secretary of Tasmania's Technical Education Board,[6] in which capacity he first became known by the surname Tranthim-Fryer.

In February 1891, following the resignation of Mr Kingsmill,[8] he was put in charge of the Art class at Hobart Technical College and formally appointed that same month.

He took a year's leave of absence in 1896 to study at the Lambeth School of Sculpture, then applied for an extension, as he was working as an assistant to E. Onslow Ford in London, also gaining casting experience at the Albion Art Bronze Foundry,[9] while Mrs Tranthim-Fryer was studying singing and harmony with Dr Churchill Sibley.

[10] Tranthim-Fryer returned to Australia around New Year's Day 1900, having gained several distinctions while in England, as had his wife, who furthered her musical studies under Tosti and Santley.

[17] Melbourne's Eastern Suburbs Technical College was founded in 1908 by a local committee with support from the Premier, Thomas Bent, and a site in John Street, Hawthorn was vested in George Swinburne MLA, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Water Supply as provisional trustee.

[23] He retired, due to ill-health, on 30 June 1928, and died at his residence, "Bush Home", Croydon Road, Bayswater a few weeks later.